OTB’s voice in the sky

Meet Steve Perry, the voice of Illinois racing nobody knows.

Perry is a lifelong racetracker who answered an ad for a “satellite disc jockey” about eight years ago, as he remembers it.

Born in Texas but raised in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Perry, 55, has worked on the gate crews in California and Arkansas. He pretty much grew up in the horse business but eventually tired of the transient life.

Now, Perry works at the Oak Brook, Illinois, off-track betting parlor, in a small room full of monitors, decoders, and an online switching system that allows him to govern ‘the action channel.’

The action channel is beamed out to more than a dozen betting parlors in Illinois, and it is usually the only channel accompanied by sound – an honor amongst the dozen or more signals featured on the banks of TV screens at the local OTB. Perry controls the action, choosing the most important race in the country at any given moment.

He also has a live microphone to give a heads-up for upcoming races and make comments on horses, trainers, jockeys, and anything else he wants to contribute. Perry is a voice in the sky, the simulcast players’ guide to a day at the OTB.

Considering that more money is wagered at the OTBs in Illinois than at the tracks, Perry plays a significant role in how racing’s customers view the product.

When 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin was paraded between races at Churchill Downs last Saturday, Perry called attention to the chestnut horse that might have escaped many weekend warriors’ notice.

“I had a lot of people who said thanks for doing that. They told me they didn’t even know [the Curlin ceremony] was going on,” Perry said. “I always try to put the award ceremonies up when they honor a great, such as Laffit Pincay...”

Oak Brook is Illinois’ most popular OTB, handling $71.8-million in 2007. About 75% of that action was on out-of-state simulcasts.

Oak Brook’s handle has been stagnant the last five years, hovering between $71 and $73-million. No doubt Oak Brook has been affected by over-expansion of the OTB network at the same time the ADW revolution is encouraging people to play along from the couch.

“When I started working here, we had probably six parlors. Now we have 15, and it’s diluted our strength quite a bit,” Perry said. “We have a lot of people who make their bets online, but they’ll still come in here to watch the races. Or they’ll come in and make their bets and then go home and watch TVG.”

So how has the OTB crowd changed over the last eight years?

“With our business now, it’s mostly the die-hards,” Perry said. “There’s not as many of what I call newbies – the first-timers – except on the big race days.”

I was curious how Perry handles racing’s bad habit of sending two or three races off at the same time.

“On Friday or Saturday there’s usually three tracks going off within a minute of each other. If they’ve got a $4,000 claimer at Hawthorne and there’s a stakes race at Aqueduct or Hollywood, I’ll always put up the better race,” Perry said. “It doesn’t bother me personally, but it happens all the time. A lot of people come up to me and ask why don’t more tracks stagger their post times? It seems the only time there’s a concerted effort to stagger races is on the big days like Breeders’ Cup.”

Like me, Perry is not a fan of slot machines as racing’s savior.

“Slots jack the purses up, but just because $5,000 claimers are running for $20,000, it doesn’t make them better horses,” Perry said. “I’m trying to get the better races and the better horses out to the public.”

Despite some depressing trends, Perry’s love of racing continues to transmit over ‘the action channel.’

Minutes before Beethoven wins the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Perry touts him as a horse to watch for on the road to the Kentucky Derby. He mentions a first-time starter that he heard “can run a little bit.” He jokes about Julien Leparoux and Mike Maker dominating the Churchill fall meeting.

“Ho-hum, another winner for Maker and Leparoux.”

Perry reminds the customers that it is closing day at Churchill. He tells them what meets are coming up. He mentions Friday night’s Delta Jackpot Stakes.

“Most of our customers don’t even know Delta will be running Friday night, but when I tell them about it, they say, ‘Oh, these are Derby horses?’”

Perry believes simulcast locations need to do a better job of marketing and presenting racing at its best. He also believes there are too many tracks, running too many dates.

“If racing would just do what I say, we’d be fine,” Perry joked.

Keep up the good work Steve.