In his 14th year, the son of Paul Berube, retired head of the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau, the sport’s security arm, the youthfully fit 44-year-old has witnessed the kind of growth that must be the envy of the racing industry. Berube believes the impetus for this success came 11 years ago when Tampa’s own track maintenance crew installed a turf course.
A review of Tampa’s history hints this country track on Florida’s left coast always might have been destined for good things. It began when two partners opened Tampa Downs in 1926. One of them, Col. Matt Winn, went on to become the promotional genius behind the success of the Kentucky Derby a decade later.
Upon the retirement of Sam F. Davis in 1980, the track was renamed Tampa Bay Downs and a year later Budweiser sponsored the inaugural Tampa Bay Derby, the same year an apprentice named Julie Krone won her first race en route to a Hall of Fame career. Last year, Street Sense became the first Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner to win the Kentucky Derby after making his three-year-old debut in this track’s signature event. Tampa handled $10.9-million from all sources that day. It had arrived.
“We wanted to attract major outfits with better horses and they wanted turf. So we installed the turf course and it’s made all the difference." And so the major outfits came and brought with them better stock. That’s reflected in the fact that purses have increased every year since.
Field size isn’t the only number that’s taken a small hit. Weekday on-track attendance and handle is down. “We’ve seen some growth in our export signals but when you look at sales tax figures and hotel receipts state-wide, it’s clear that a lot of people haven’t come to Florida this year. Weekends are good. Our Poker Room is attracting a younger demographic, but the fixed-income people we usually get are hurting.”
In addition to the Poker Room which, by statute, must pay half its profits into the purse account, Tampa has taken other measures to drive business. It installed The Downs, a 17-acre Practice Golf Facility featuring a short game area, golf schools, Jr. golf camps, and a one of its kind driving range with self-service betting machines. A miniature golf course is on the drawing board.
Tampa Bay Downs is not a typical “racino” that segregates casino patrons from the racetrack. The Silks Poker Room has simulcast monitors surrounding its 26 tables, live betting windows, self-service machines and an unobstructed, birds-eye view of the races. “We want new people to come out to the racetrack,” said Tampa’s vice-president and general manager.
And horseplayers were not ignored in the expansion process. Tampa’s first elevator was installed in the grandstand last year and Berube promises an aggressive capital expenditure plan will allow for continuing major renovations.
But will Tampa, like some other tracks, run cheaper stock to save purse money? “Tomorrow would be a good example. Last year we carded three ‘beaten claimers,’ this year none. We want to maintain structure and don’t want purses fluctuating from [condition] book to book. Horsemen love five-horse fields. That’s not our philosophy. What fills is what goes.”
In December 2006, seven riders suspected of being involved in betting rings or working independently were told to leave the grounds. No evidence of wrongdoing was found and recently, when five of the riders applied for re-admission, all were denied. All racetracks have the right of exclusion if it feels the decision is in their best interests.
“Integrity is a prime concern. Without it there is no racing. Until the investigation is complete, [the ban] must continue. That’s Tampa’s position. You can‘t tell the FBI what to do.”
In addition to the Tampa Derby, the little track that could will offer the Hillsborough Stakes, Dreaming of Anna vs. Lure’s Princess Redux, two of the best turf fillies in training. Ninety minutes later, Nick Zito will try to emulate the Tampa Derby victory of the 2006 juvenile champion with the 2007 champion.
In a game where the good news is routinely outdistanced by the bad, and the only measures of success are the bottom line and fan perception, the notion that Tampa Bay Downs must be doing something right is indisputable.
16 Mar 2008 at 04:15 pm | #
John, are we that desperate for ANY good news in the squalid ghetto that racing has become, that we are willingly to forget that Tampa Bay Downs not too long ago - without offering any evidence - arbitrarily banished about a half-dozen jockeys for the implied - and never proven - crimes of fixing races?
Oh, yeah, the usual short-term-memory articles blazed away at the injustice, but TBD eventually & with the greatest of ease, escaped the consequences that rightly was accorded to the bizarre and corrupt state prosecutor of the Duke University lacrosse players.
And at the same time your article appeared, so did Bill Finley’s accurate indictment of Eliot Spitzer as the monster who ruined the lives of two innocent men - a clerk and assistant clerk of scales at NYRA - with an insane legal indictment during the time that he served as a state Attorney General.
Fortunately, those two were acquitted when a disgusted judge abruptly stopped the trial dead in its tracks and threw the charges into the Hudson River.
Nifong (bankrupt): Gone. Spitzer (unfortunately, only morally, bankrupt): Gone.
But TBD, a court unto itself without any counter-balances to insure fairness, has gone on its merry way.
And now we have a wonderful place where amnesiacs can go to play poker.
So, a warning to the remaining TBD jockeys.
Just watch out where that poker is applied next.
16 Mar 2008 at 07:26 pm | #
Don,
Thanks for your cleverly worded and thoughtful reply. Indeed, Mario Sclafani and Braulio Baeza, a Hall of Fame jockey known for his integrity, were unjustly smeared with brushes of accusation.
Apparently you don’t accept Petr Berube at his word, that they will hold firm until the FBI investigation is completed and that “you can’t tell the FBI what do you.”
I was sitting across the desk from Berube and failed to get dizzy, meaning, I couldn’t detect spin coming from the other side of the desk. I took him at his word. You have a right not to.
Thanks again for weighing in. Thoughtful commentary is always welcome here.
John
16 Mar 2008 at 09:12 pm | #
John,
Thank you for your insightful blog piece on Tampa Bay Downs. That has fast become one of my favorite winter tracks to play.
The shippers at Tampa don’t come from the same places that shippers to the more popular winter tracks—like Gulfstream and Fair Grounds—do. The Tampa shippers come from places like Fort Erie, Suffolk, Thistledown, Canterbury, Great Lakes Downs and Finger Lakes.
That makes for challenging handicapping, as those lesser-known upper midwest and northeastern tracks don’t get as much ink in the handicapping publications.
I do have one question for you—do you know exactly how much money was wagered to show on War Pass in the Tampa Bay Derby?
17 Mar 2008 at 04:37 pm | #
John:
Being thought of as simultaneously clever and thoughtful is a high compliment.
Usually, when people are clever, it comes at the expense of being thoughtful. The consequences of cleverness, unleavened by rational deliberation, can be dreadful.
We all know that. Boring, thoughtful people are the unappreciated hazards. There’s no point in knowing what’s coming around the bend if you’re an ace at putting an audience into a coma.
I’m not concerned about Peter Berube being detected at the art of using spin (although I do appreciate it being your concern, and rightly so).
In handicapping, I don’t care what will happen at the beginning, during and right up to the last second of a race.
I am solely focused on who will be - and in what order, 1st 2nd & 3rd - AT the finish line.
The analogy is that when the FBI informed Berube of their concerns (or vice versa), it started, so to speak, a race. And the suspected jockeys were gang-pressed into it.
About 15 months later, this race ("investigation") is still plodding along. There’s no finish line. NOTHING has been resolved.
And Berube still sits there, unperturbed & entirely at ease, content to discuss the matter in a matter-of-fact voice - as if the expulsions had just occurred, say, three weeks ago.
For him, there’s no personal penalty for missing a deadline. There was no deadline. The announcer has been calling out splits for 180 consecutive weeks
Meanwhile, all of the jockeys involved have been scattered to the winds. Doubtless, all of them have had their reputations damaged. Whispers kill.
And in a business where 2nd and 3rd tier jockeys under normal conditions can end up being forced to harvest betting tickets off the apron in the hope that some fool threw away a winning bet, it is probable that by now, some of them have been forced to quit riding. All, doubtless, have suffered financially.
If Berube had had any guts, about six months ago, he would have made the following statement:
“The FBI, having voiced serious concerns about fixed races, in the past nine months have failed to obtain the evidence which would have been the basis of legal indictments of the jockeys, who we - on their advice - peremptorily banned from Tampa Bay Downs.
“We ourselves also have failed to independently confirm the unsubstantiated rumors -which we ourselves had publicized when the ban was instituted - that races, in violation of the law, had been fixed.
“As far as we are concerned, these men are now welcome to return to our track to ride in races, or to work in any other available capacity. We regret, having placed them - and the members of their families - in jeopardy, & hope that they accept our heartfelt apology.”
The splits for Week 181 will be announced on Tuesday.
Regards,
Don