Mistreating customers no way to grow business

Two recent stories made me wonder if the people running horse racing understand the concept that mistreating your customers is a bad business practice.

The first item was for a new wager called 123 Racing. The tracks involved in the startup are Canterbury, Hawthorne, Mountaineer, Philadelphia Park and Presque Isle. The wager has a carry-over proviso, so the hope is horseplayers will bet big when the pot grows. My problem with it, the takeout is an outrageous 35 percent.

The second item occurred in California when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill allowing state racing associations the option to raise their takeout on wagers up to 5 percent across the board. Thank goodness it’s voluntary.

However, with shrinking revenues, the temptation to raise the takeout somewhere between 1 and 5 percent in the future might become a reality.

We horseplayers still are waiting for a think tank to hatch ideas to grow horse racing. Part of that is creating new fans to attract new bettors. Another is marketing to an audience that wagers already but maybe hasn’t tried horse racing yet. A third is renovating the wagering product so it is an attractive investment. For example, if straight pools were reduced to 10 percent takeout, the tax would be similar to the vig on sports betting.

• SPLIT VOTE — This cat fight between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta supporters is ludicrous. My manhood has been questioned just because I want to split my Horse of the Year ballot between them. The vote has been compared to a presidential election; man up and vote for one or the other.

Be real. This vote is not for the leader of the free world. It’s a marketing tool to promote horse racing. If two horses are worthy of the honor, so be it. It would help the sport, not hurt it, to honor two champions. I say let’s celebrate the accomplishments of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, equally.

• FRANKEL ‘A GOOD MAN’ — Many fine eulogies have been given this week on the death of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel. In fact, HRTV will air ”A Tribute to Bobby” on its Inside Information program at 6 p.m. Sunday. One of Frankel’s best friends was trainer Julio Canani, so I’ll quote his simple words: ”The man was unbelievable. He had a heart as big as they get. A good man.”

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.