Years and years ago as cable television was starting to make inroads and broadcasting home games of all sports, there was doomsday talk of the games being played in front of no one, just a studio audience; no one would choose to come to the game. There would be no such thing as home attendance.
Didn't happen, until coronavirus descended on the big blue ball and sent everyone home to keep their "social distancing" to a minimum. Years, maybe months from now, someone will try and give credit to whomever first coined the term "social distancing."
After the November 1965 blackout in NYC unexpectedly kept everyone in the dark for extra hours, there were claims that 9 months later the birth rate in the city had taken an uptick. They even made a movie about it staring Doris Day.
Will couples working from home be inclined to take a nooner and finally push the nation's birth rate higher to the point that the actuaries will declare Social Security will stay funded? Time will tell. There are always consequences.
When the list of sports impacted by the virus is repeated—and repeated—no one talks of horse racing except a unique niche of people who follow this. On a good day, there are not many people who attend the races—anywhere. My own experience is at New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks, where even on sunny Saturdays there can be a small crowd in attendance. With 52 years of racetrack attendance in my vault, I can tell the difference. It is huge.
You can hear the jockeys' crops slap the horses, and you can hear their chatter as they approach the finish line. You can hear the horses' hoof beats. It is actually more exciting to watch because you can hear more.
If there's a traffic light working at an intersection in a small town at 2 A.M. and no one is around, does that mean you have to stop? Most people do. But there's something spectral about electronic lights working and no one is watching. It's eerie.
So consider that NYRA and other jurisdictions are running their races in front of no one. Well, in most cases there was no one when there could be someone, so what's different? Little. The jockeys certainly are not going to notice much difference. And the horses? Well, who knows unless they tell you.
The tote board is lit, the money is being bet via online and inter-track wagering, and there are winners, losers, and payouts. On Friday, there was a total mutuel pool of $268,989, which I will take to come from the NYRA betting platform, and an inter-state wagering pool of $4,345,062. Clearly, the public is not necessarily needed to be there.
The prior day of racing was Sunday, March 8th, when there was on-track attendance, there was more money bet in the mutual pool and in the inter-state wagering pool: $748,080, $7,100,328. Clearly the public presence adds to the handle, but so does a public not otherwise worried about coronavirus. Sunday to Friday has made a world of difference in how people are reacting.
My Tweets inquiring if the tote board is lit when no one is there were answered that it was. It is even blinking away in the depths of winter when there are even less people than normal there. We haven't had snow this year, but a tote board blinking with snow in front of it would be a sight to me. Unseen hands are changing the odds as post time approaches. A Higher Power at work.
When will the all clear siren blow? What number will tell everyone it's okay to come out and play again? Perhaps the tote board will tell us. No matter how long you live, you haven't seen it all.
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