The Horse Race Tracks: What Good Are They For?
The modern racing boom actually began early in World War II. Attempts were made in the name of austerity to close tracks, or at least to prevent the opening of new ones. But the government took the position that racetracks were good for the war effort because they siphoned money that otherwise would have been chasing scarce goods. Between 1940 and 1946, racing attendance patriotically tripled to about 24 million, and the betting handle quadrupled, to about $1.8 billion. Thereafter for four years, the attendance remained level and the handle declined to $1.3 billion; and then both rose sharply from 1951 to 1953. Some of this rise can be attributed to television; millions who had never seen a horse race became fans of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt’ s Native Dancer, whose gray coat could be seen clearly on television screens. Since 1953, thoroughbred racing has expanded slowly, and not all of the expansion reflects a real rise in the number of fans. Some of the increased attendance is accounte
