Obama provides astute lessons

Horse racing could learn a lot from President-elect Barack Obama. And it matters not if Obama signs one piece of legislation to help the industry.

What horse racing should take from his campaign is trusting the intellectual use of technology to promote a cause.

Horse racing is kind of in the position that Obama faced in the spring of 2007. The junior senator from Illinois was a long shot, trailing such higher profile Democrats as Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Joe Biden.

What Obama did was embrace technology, the Internet and social networking to build a vast reservoir of public support. It led to untold thousands of people who volunteered in his campaign and donations of record amounts of money.

The fact Obama had a good platform to sell was a factor. But this is where horse racing can take a cue. Despite all the negativity surrounding the game, horse racing still is the best mix of sport, entertainment and gambling.

Some of these points were covered in a forum at the NTRA Marketing Summit at Red Rock Casino in September. "Reaching a New Generation" was a panel of new media people familiar with the tools used by the Obama campaign.

Some of these tools include e-mail, mass text messaging, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, iPhone, blogging, viral marketing, Twitter and MeetUp. There's more, but the idea in using cyberspace is to leave no stone unturned.

I can already hear critics complain this will do nothing to reach the current fan base, which is an aging demographic. But that's the point. To boost its fan base, racing must reach a younger audience that might like horse racing but doesn't know it yet.

The New Generation panel was the most thought-provoking group I've heard in a long time. Analyzing the Obama election victory only cemented that for me.

• ALIANTE OPENS -- Aliante Station will become the newest jewel in the Station Casinos empire when it opens Tuesday in North Las Vegas.

Its modern, 170-seat race book will be in line with offerings at Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, Santa Fe and Sunset.

• LUCKY FRIDAYS -- Lucky's will offer a free handicapping contest during the Hollywood meet at its four Southern Nevada race books at the Plaza and three Terrible's locations in Las Vegas, Primm and Pahrump.

• MARYLAND SLOTS -- Maryland voters approved a referendum to allow 15,000 slot machines at five sites around the state. Laurel Park is expected to be one of those sites.

Surrounding states Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia all have slots at their racetracks.

Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.