DOVER, Del. -- The first national conference on the blending of slot machines and horse tracks ended Friday at the plush Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center with a discussion of "Saving the tracks: Is gaming the answer?"
To a roomful of people touting the virtues of slot machines, the answer was a resounding yes. Consider that question in Maryland with its rich history of horse racing, and the question becomes: Will gaming, after saving racing, eventually destroy it?
The two-day conference in Dover -- called "Racino 2002" -- featured casino executives and "gaming" consultants leading discussions, all assuming the position that slots at racetracks, er, racinos, are a good thing. That good thing, of course, seems to be coming to Maryland with the election of Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as governor. He advocates slots at Pimlico, Laurel Park, Rosecroft Raceway and the planned track in Allegany County.
"As a horse player I watch the racino phenomenon really agog," said Steve Crist, publisher of The Daily Racing Form. "Racinos are changing the racing landscape. I think the process is going to accelerate."
Still, Crist said, slots and racetracks lack a true marriage. For instance, he said, on this, his first visit to Dover Downs, a harness track with 2,000 slot machines, he had no trouble finding the slots casino, but "I had a lot of trouble finding the racetrack."
He suggested that tracks with slot machines televise races where people playing the slots can see them, that casino dM-icor reflect the history and pageantry of horse racing, and that management promote racing to slots players by distributing literature and betting vouchers.
"We're all thrilled to see purses doubling," Crist said. "But please don't turn your back on the thing that got you here: horse racing itself."
States that have legalized slot machines have usually done it as a way of bolstering horse racing. Crist said he fears one day legislators will look up and say: "Hey, wait a second. Why are we throwing all this money to a declining industry that can't seem to support itself?"
Richard Thalheimer, perhaps the leading researcher and consultant on racing in the country, said slot machines have saved racetracks and will continue saving them as more and more states approve slots. Clearly, he said, slots revenue boosts purses, and higher purses fuel the entire economic engine of racing as well as breeding.
Higher purses create more earning potential for horses. That, in turn, bolsters the breeding industry by driving up the price of yearlings, and that prompts breeders to produce more horses, Thalheimer said. As a result, green space is preserved.
However, Thalheimer's research shows that although slots attract women, younger people and couples to the track, these newcomers don't bet on horse races. But horse bettors play slots. The result? Dramatic decreases in betting on horse racing.
The long-range viability of the pari-mutuel industry may depend in part on converting some of these slots players, even a small percentage, into horse players, Thalheimer said.
"If that can't happen, I think the future is fairly bleak," he said.
Magna on the way
The Maryland Racing Commission won't consider until Wednesday whether Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment Corp. is a suitable owner for Pimlico and Laurel Park. But Stronach's black and gold silks have arrived in the state already.
Stronach owns about 200 horses in training, and he's sent 11 of them to Pimlico for Richard Small to train. Small won with the first Stronach horse he saddled, Daddy Cool, a 4-year-old son of Capote down from Woodbine, who won by 11 1/4 lengths last weekend at Laurel.
"They seem like good horses," Small said. "They're mostly young horses that he [Stronach] bred."
Small was as surprised as anyone to get them. He said he was summoned out of the blue to the office of Joe De Francis, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club, a little more than a month ago. When Small walked in, Stronach was waiting. Small had never met him.
Stronach asked a few questions and said he wanted to send Small some horses. Small had 10 or 11, down from the 50 or so he used to train for Robert E. Meyerhoff before the two parted company three years ago. Small didn't have much to think about. Sure, he said, he'd train Stronach's horses.
"I just met him for a few minutes," Small said. "I think I can do well for him. It's a great thing for the state."
Small said people he knows know Stronach and his people, and somewhere in there Stronach found his Maryland trainer. They don't come much better than Small, who has won at least one stakes race every year since 1974.
Around the tracks
Xtra Heat won't contest the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash on Saturday at Laurel, having missed too much training in Kentucky preparing for last weekend's auction, said her trainer John Salzman. Xtra Heat didn't sell in the auction, but the next day Salzman and his partners sold her for $1.5 million to a four-man partnership based in Utah.
Salzman said he has talked with the filly's new owners and targeted the $75,000 Garland of Roses Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares Dec. 14 at Aqueduct. Salzman said the owners want to keep Xtra Heat fit for a possible second try at the $2 million sprint stakes in Dubai in late March.
Xtra Heat's absence leaves Thunderello as the main attraction in the De Francis Dash, one of only two Grade I stakes this year in Maryland. Thunderello finished a game second at 48-1 odds in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, holding off Orientate, the nation's top sprinter, until the final strides.
The Dash heads a stellar six-stakes day at Laurel. The Grade III Laurel Futurity highlights the undercard. It will feature Toccet, the Laurel-based colt who finished ninth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile after starting from the disadvantageous No. 13 post. The race before, Toccet won the prestigious Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
A victory with Da Charm in the third race Wednesday at Laurel tied the veteran jockey Rick Wilson with the legendary Eddie Arcaro at 4,779 wins, 20th among jockeys. Wilson returned two weeks ago after missing 54 weeks with a broken leg.
Meyerhoff's Include has been retired and will stand at stud next year at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky.
The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association will honor Maryland owner Frank Hopkins and trainers Larry Murray and Nancy Alberts as its 16th annual Christmas party Dec. 2 at Laurel Park.