DATE: Sunday, August 31, 1997               TAG: 9709020269

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: COLONIAL DOWNS

        Post time for New Kent's horse-racing track

SOURCE: BY HOLLY A. HEYSER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

THE ODDS OF SUCCESS MANY SEE PROMISING FUTURE FOR COLONIAL DOWNS.

The past decade in horse racing is littered with bankrupt new tracks: Prairie Meadows in Iowa, Retama Park and Sam Houston Race Park in Texas, The Woodlands in Kansas, Birmingham Turf Club in Alabama.

So Colonial Downs is taking a chanceopening a track in Virginia, right?

Not necessarily, industry observers say.

Despite the bankruptcies, and despite the deserted grandstands at race tracks around the mid-Atlantic, Colonial Downs stands a pretty good chance at success, they say.

It might even be poised to ride a wave of popularity that the industry hopes to incite with a new national marketing arm called the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

``I think there is clearly an avenue to a very healthy future (for race tracks),'' said Tom Aronson, president of Racing Resource Group Inc., a racing consultant firm in Alexandria.

The key, he said, is avoiding the problems that drove tracks in other states to file for bankruptcy: High debt levels due to overbuilding and low revenues due to the absence of income from off-track betting and simulcasting. Simulcasting allows track patrons to bet on races run all over the country, not just the ones at their track.

Aronson said he believes Virginia's track has many of the critical components, particularly the off-track betting.

Colonial Downs operates two off-track betting parlors in Chesapeake and Richmond, where patrons wagered nearly $46 million in the first half of 1997. The track plans to open two more in Hampton and Brunswick late next month, and it is seeking voter approval in November to build centers in Roanoke, Martinsville and Fredericksburg.

Having a network of satellite wagering centers around the state brings in revenue year-round, not just during Colonial Downs' six-week-long live meet that begins Monday. And having two centers operating well before the track opens has raised purse money for the live meet. That means Colonial Downs didn't go into debt to pay out $4.5 million to winning horses over the next six weeks.

``You learn from history, if you're clever,'' said Glenn Petty, executive director of the Maryland/Virginia Racing Circuit.

``When people are writing the history books,'' he added, ``They'll be writing about all those tracks that weren't a success except for Colonial Downs.''

And while Colonial Downs is building the biggest turf track in the country, its grandstand is relatively modest in comparison, which helps keep down construction debt. Colonial Downs' grandstand capacity is 6,000, compared to Maryland's Pimlico Race Course, which fits nearly 36,000.

A smaller grandstand reflects a new reality in horse racing: Patrons are happy to drive to the nearest off-track betting center and watch racing on television in air-conditioned comfort instead of possibly driving farther to sweat it out at the track.

``You don't have to have bodies warming the seats to attract revenue,'' said Ray Paulick, editor of a weekly trade publication, ``The Blood-Horse.''

Even so, Paulick said he still believes it's important for the industry to bring fans to the track, and one auspicious development on that front is the creation of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

Basketball has a similar promoter in the NBA and baseball has one in Major League Baseball, but this is an unprecedented - and untested - phenomenon in horse racing.

The organization plans to raise $50 million a year within three years and use the money for major television promotions, Paulick said. ``It's doing things that NASCAR has done and other sports leagues have done.''

Colonial Downs is also trying to cultivate a broad fan base by holding ``family days'' every Sunday. Special events in the coming meet including a petting farm Sept. 7, a mobile marine science lab at the track on Sept. 28 and a magic theme on Oct. 12, the last day of live racing this year.

``That's a piece of the formula that's been lost in recent years,'' Aronson said. Racing used to be much more family-oriented, he said.

``There are realities that have to be dealt with here. This is a gambling sport, and kids can't bet,'' he said. ``But horses are the stuff of dreams to kids.

``The trick for race tracks is not to be what they're not'' - child-oriented recreation - ``but also not to fall back on the core of their revenue alone: gambling,'' he said.

``Having said all that, I firmly believe the key to the future of Colonial Downs is going to be off-track wagering in Virginia.'' KEYWORDS: HORSE RACING RACE TRACKS

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