COLUMN: Jay Richards

     Home TV racing in Las Vegas might not be imminent, but personal-computer owners have discovered an alternative enabling them to stay at home and bet their favorite tracks.
      What they will see on their computer screen July 23 when Del Mar re-opens -- the first of many tracks sure to maximize exposure and profit on the World Wide Web -- is the running of every race on a virtually live basis.
      Mary Shepardson, special projects director for Del Mar's marketing department, said home viewers can watch her track's races on a delayed basis.
      "Last year, the first time we put the live video of our races on computer, we fed it into the system, and by the time it made its way through the system and onto home computer screens, people were seeing races on a delay of about 20 seconds," Shepardson said.
      "But this year, we've made adjustments to cut the delay to just a few seconds. They'll be watching an almost-live running."
      Del Mar also will provide audio-only broadcasts and continuous updating of win odds and exotic wagering probable payoffs.
      But even before Del Mar opens, you'll be able to hear the virtually live audio call of every race from Hollywood Park.
      A Hollywood Park spokesman said the track was awaiting shipment of audio equipment, expected within the next two weeks, after which computer users can hear the virtually live call of every Hollywood Park race.
      Current odds, updated every 15 seconds, for nearly every U.S. track are available on computer through the Daily Racing Form and Bloodstock Research Information Services.
      You can watch -- simultaneously -- updated odds on every horse at as many as five tracks of your choice.
      A growing number of local race books -- with the Las Vegas Hilton Superbook the latest addition -- are offering pari-mutuel horse-wagering telephone accounts.
      Players who open telephone accounts can use their home computers to follow the odds of every horse at every track up to post time, and then place their bets by phone.
      In the future, they'll be able to hear and see the virtually live audio/video of those races.
      What Del Mar has begun assuredly will be followed by race tracks nationwide, tapping a veritable gold mine of new revenue.
      By offering viewers the convenience of toll-free telephone-wagering accounts, tracks in one state suddenly will find new bettors investing in their wagering pools from other parts of the country, if not the world.
      These tracks also stand to compete with Nevada's race books. What an opportunity for them to turn the tables on Nevada resorts in the rebate dispute.
      Suppose a track puts the audio/video and updated odds for its races on computer, and then offers interstate telephone-wagering accounts with a toll-free number.
      What's to stop these tracks from offering rebates to Nevada bettors of, say, 5 percent?
      Let's hypothesize that a track receives a simulcast fee of 3.5 percent from the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association.
      For every dollar a player bets in Nevada, the track receives 3 1/2 cents.
      But if the track's take is 18 percent, and if it rebates 5 percent to Nevada bettors who use its phone account, the track would hold 13 cents on the Nevada bettor's dollar -- nearly four times as much as the 3 1/2 cents for a dollar wagered in a Nevada race book.
      Reportedly, it won't be long before the California state legislature approves Senate Bill 144, a measure to allow interstate telephone wagers on races in California.
      Meanwhile, Nevada race-book operators can lure back lost customers from Hollywood Park's TV blackout by using the computer to display the current odds at that track, and to broadcast the virtually live race calls by hooking up a computer to their in-house audio speakers.
      -- GOLDEN GATE -- Peter Tunney, Golden Gate Fields vice president and general manager, said Saturday he's confident his track will reach an agreement with the Thoroughbred Owners of California for consent to resume simulcasting his track's races to Nevada.
      Golden Gate Fields has accepted an offer from the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association to end the simulcast blackout, which began Dec. 26.
      "I talked to (NPMA executive director) Don Driscoll Friday, and we're working on a clarification of the language for the clause prohibiting the home televising of our races in Nevada," Tunney said.
      "I expect to talk with the TOC on Monday," he said, adding that Golden Gate races could return this week.
     
      Jay Richards' horse racing column is published Friday and Sunday.