My marketing idea

Sitting at the Sanf0rd-Orlando Kennel Club in May 2002 with a fellow horseplayer and Steinmaniac something caught our eye as we played the ponies and waited for dogs and simulcast jai alai (it was about 5 p.m. EDT, so we were between cards of a day-night greyhound doubleheader).

Calder Race Course had a dead heat for win, and the screen was blowing up! There were graphics, there was excitement from the announcer, this was big time.

I'm not a big fan of dead heats. The wannabe philosophical mathematician in me (I was a Math major once) says that two moving objects traveling at different speeds can't hit the same point at the exact same time. We just don't have the technology (or racing doesn't want to invest in such technology) to figure out a winner.

The gambler in me sees "winning" a dead heat as surviving a tie. It really is like kissing your sister. Yeah, I guess it's better than losing, but it's worse than winning, too. The worst feeling is betting a horse strictly to win, "surviving" the photo to earn a dead heat and then find out that the old ladies who bet to place and show won more than you did.

Still, Calder was on to something here because I was able to see beyond my hatred for the dead heat and appreciate that Calder's graphics and the announcer's excitement had attracted me to its signal. My friend and I immediately thought that all racetracks should be pulling out all stops for every dead heat.

Instead of just lighting up the words "dead heat" on the tote board, the track should have pyrotechnics erupting from the toteboard while spotlights come on a stage raising above the turf course (or infield or winner's circle).

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!" the announcer would bellow. "Please direct your attention to the infield tote board. We have a dead heat for show!" Immediately the Can-Can would start playing from all speakers while dancers (male and female because I know how Stronach's "vision" offends people) do a Dead Heat routine.

The track could sell sponsorships. "This Dead Heat is brought to you by Bill's heating and cooling. 'Don't let splitting your winnings burn you up, have Bill cool you down in the summer!'"

People would come to the track just in the hopes of seeing a dead heat. John Williams would be so moved by the extravaganza that he would write a suite just to accompany the spectacle once the can-can got old.

In some ways, I'm thankful that no one else has thought of this in the 7 1/2 years that my friend and I first did because this idea will make us rich and keep us flush with consulting work for years, but I do feel bad that the racing industry missed out on so many opportunities to engage the fan.