Although Garden State Park is the self-acclaimed ”Racetrack of the 21st Century,” time may prove the palatial track Robert Brennan built across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to be an imposter.
The authentic prototype might turn out to be Teletrack, a monument to technology that stands a few furlongs from the Connecticut shores of Long Island Sound.
Teletrack has racing–thoroughbreds in the afternoon and standardbreds at night–but it has no horses per se.
The runners and the sulkies are in New York–at Aqueduct, Belmont, Saratoga, Yonkers and Roosevelt, depending on the time of year.
They are brought to this cylindrical amphitheater on Long Island Sound via microwave and projected in full color on a 24-by-32-foot screen made in Switzerland. Teletrack is a theater combined with a restaurant, a state-of-the-art facility devoted to off-track betting.
Architect Herbert Newman`s design is calculated to appeal to a broad range of horseplayers, ”so that racing fans on a tight budget won`t be turned off by too-rich surroundings, and the better-heeled won`t feel like they`re slumming.”
On July 1, a new section of the Illinois racing law goes into effect, permitting each of the state`s seven tracks to open two off-track satellites. If these teletracks follow the Connecticut model, Illinois racing will be putting its best foot forward in an attempt to win new friends and influence people to make horseplaying part of their lifestyle.
Connecticut`s Teletrack has a capacity of 2,200. There are three echelons: the 1,900-seat grandstand on the main concourse; the clubhouse on the second deck, which includes a 200-seat restaurant and balcony boxes; and four VIP rooms, used mainly for private parties. A common denominator is an abundance of creature comforts and a spic-and-span environment.
In addition to the gigantic screen, there are many conventional TV monitors at every level. Lights automatically dim when races begin, and the sound system comes across loud and clear without blaring.
To prepare for the introduction of off-track betting in Illinois, Bill Bissett, executive director of the Illinois Racing Board, has visited Teletrack. He thinks it`s a fine facility but questions the movie-theater style of seating in the grandstand.
”They`re comfortable seats, but they`re not for your average racing fan,” Bissett said. ”People in the grandstand have no room to spread out. If there were a variety of seating arrangements, it would be a lot better.”
But it`s hard to beat the price. Admission tickets are $2.40 for the grandstand and $4.20 for the restaurant and balcony boxes. For dining and horseplaying in the VIP rooms, the tab ranges from $10.50 to $21.50 a person. The setting is horsey but low-key. Nobody is cracking the whip in an attempt to drive customers to the betting windows. Instead, the method is one of friendly persuasion.
”We have developed a library of 300 feature films by sending camera crews to the New York tracks,” said Bill Drew, general manager of Teletrack, which is run by the AmTote Systems Division of General Instrument Corp. ”Our studies have determined that the attention span of our customers is from three to four minutes, so we use some of these short films to fill the time between races.”
Teletrack is only 82 miles from Belmont Park, but the competition for customers is negligible. The situation is somewhat analogous to the presence of American League baseball teams in both Chicago and Milwaukee.
According to Drew, ”70 percent of our customers are within a 50-mile radius. The typical regular customer is a male between 46 and 54 who comes out two or three times per week. He has 14 years of education and an annual income of between $30,000 and $36,000.”
Unlike residents of Minnesota and Alabama, states that have instituted horse racing in the last three years, citizens of Connecticut were relatively knowledgeable followers of the thoroughbred and harness sports when parimutuel betting and the lottery were legalized here in 1972. Whereas Minnesota and Alabama were far from the racing mainstream, Connecticut was a next-door neighbor to New York and Massachusetts, both with a long racing tradition.
”The lottery started almost immediately, and then came a dog track in Plainfield in the northeast corner of the state followed by jai alai frontons and dog racing in Bridgeport, Milford and Hartford,” Drew recalled. ”There was a feasibility study conducted concerning horse racing. A track would have cost between $50 million and $60 million to build.
”But the bettor in Connecticut was used to New York quality, and that was a product of the purse structure. How can you build a purse structure equivalent to that of New York when you have only 3.1 million people in the state? You can`t.”
It was decided that OTB was the way to go and General Instrument would be the vehicle. However, there was a roadblock. Transmitting horse races from one state to another was prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission. The ban was removed in 1974, and Connecticut joined Nevada and New York in the OTB arena.
The original legislation provided for 20 OTB branches, plus the Teletrack and telephone betting. In April, 1976, 11 of the OTB branches opened and telephone betting began. ”The branches were on the lines Howard Samuels designed for the city of New York, where a guy walked in, made his bets and left,” Drew said. ”Now, we`re up to 15.
”With experience, the thinking has changed concerning the branches. We now know that a lot of people want to stay and listen to the races. Eight of our branches give a live call (of the New York races) and have seating, rest rooms and smoking and nonsmoking sections. As our other seven leases expire, we will be looking for new locations so they all will be that way.”
The $8 million Teletrack opened in October, 1979. It has been so successful that another ”mini-teletrack” is being planned between Springfield, Mass., and Hartford in the north-central section of the state.
”In the branches, we`re averaging between $18 and $24 wagered per customer per visit,” Drew said. ”At the Teletrack, our per-capita is $144 during the day and $132 at night. Thoroughbred racing is more popular than harness racing.
”Our experience with the thoroughbreds at the Teletrack over the last 7 1/2 years is that we are the opposite of the track. We`re competing with all the shoreline attractions in the summer. The ideal day for me is a temperature in the low 60s and raining.”
The takeout at both the Teletrack and the branches is 17 percent on win, place and show wagering and 19 percent for the daily double, exactas and quinellas.
This parimutuel revenue pie is divided as follows: 9 cents out of every dollar bet goes to the state of Connecticut; 1 cent to the community in which the facility is located; 4 cents to General Instrument; 5 cents to the state of New York. Of this amount, 1.1 cents is retained by the state and 3.9 cents goes to the racetrack transmitting the simulcast. The track, in turn, keeps .9 cents and passes on 3 cents to the horsemen`s purse accounts.
Last year, OTB in Connecticut added $6 million to purses at the New York Racing Association thoroughbred tracks: Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga.
General Instrument and the state of Connecticut share the operating costs.
”The state supplies personnel to run day-to-day operations–clerks, security people, janitorial employees,” explained Drew. ”We employ everybody else–admissions and TV people and so on.
”There are a total of 550 state employees on the payroll at all of our facilities. Our racing commission doesn`t have a staff or a laboratory; we just have one guy. Whatever changes they make in the rules in New York, he makes in Connecticut.”
