They are an important component of the sport, and they often bring good ideas from other endeavors

by Don Clippinger

RUSS HARRIS, the retired Turf writer of the New York Daily News, offered an observation about 20 years ago that is still true today. "You can be a Ph.D. in physics," he said, "but if you're involved with the racetrack, you're still treated like you're a bum."

How true, and Harris certainly has the background to make that observation. In his long and distinguished career, he was a writer, handicapper, and racetrack steward, and he also has a Ph.D. in history, with a focus on Charles de Gaulle. He remains the handicapper for the Daily News.

It seems that, as often as not, the word "racetrack" serves as a modifier for the word "degenerate." If you go to the racetrack with any regularity, you are looked upon as deficient in character. You were playing hooky when the class on morality was being taught.

It happens to all of us involved with racing at some time. Back in the mid-1980s, a person who shares my name asked that I start using a middle initial when writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer because he feared that the racetrack association would hurt his consulting business. (He did not get his wish.)

This week's "Business of Horses" column is yet another reminder of how the regular horseplayer has been saddled with a stereotype that borders on slander.

The column was written by Charles Morison Jr., and he proudly admits to being a regular horseplayer at the Maryland tracks. He also has more than a few good ideas, one of which appeared in this space in August.

Morison suggested that racetracks, rather than spending all their marketing money on 20-somethings, should focus on the baby-boom generation, whose oldest members turned 60 this year. This group, he contends, will soon be retiring and will need a healthy avocation.

And going to the races is a healthy activity, for both body and mind, and also it has an important social aspect. Relatively few regular horseplayers are loners; they develop a cadre of acquaintances and share ideas and opinions. In short, they are a community.

For Morison, the racetrack holds fond memories. His first racetrack experience was at age 12 when his father took him to Charles Town Races. "That was one of the close things we did together," Morison said. Morison placed his first bet at age 15 on a 4 1/2-furlong race at Charles Town, and won. He continued to enjoy going to the races through college--he holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Maryland.

After serving in Vietnam, he went to work for Honeywell Corp. but before long decided that the corporate life was not for him. He walked up to the Washington offices of the United States Transportation Department--the idea of travel and visiting racetracks was part of the allure--and began a 29-year career in the Federal Transit Administration.

He was involved with the human-resources side of transit more than the hardware, and one of his proudest accomplishments was working on the founding of the National Transit Institute at Rutgers University. Morison retired in 1999, worked briefly for an Internet startup, and for the last six years has been a senior associate at the National Transit Institute with responsibility for federal and industry relations. In that position, he worked to maintain the working relationships between the institute and his former federal agency.

He also believes that it is important for racetracks to build working relationships with its steady customers, the horseplayers. Morison suggests establishment of Fan Advisory Boards, which would serve as both the focus group and think tank for racetracks. To his credit, Lou Raffetto, president of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, has listened to the ideas of Morison and his fellow players, although a formal Fan Advisory Board has yet to be set up.

The Fan Advisory Board is a valuable idea, and it is yet more evidence that good ideas can and do come from the horseplayers who populate the grandstand each day. They may be horseplayers, but more than a few of them have rich backgrounds and are willing to share their ideas with the racetrack.

Don Clippinger is editorial director of Thoroughbred Times.