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THE SIDELINE

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hile the eyes of the racing world were on Louisville, horseplayers from coast

to coast were paying attention to Grove City, Ohio, too. On the afternoon of the Kentucky Derby, Beulah Park offered a wager called the Fortune 6 that was so enticing, so irresistible that it generated a pool of more than $1 million. The little track’s remarkable

day ought to hold some valuable lessons for the racing industry. Even in a bad economic climate, an attractive betting product will find customers. And in the era of simulcasting, minor league tracks can sometimes compete with the major league circuits. Beulah has always been a scrappy, innovative operation. It became well known among horseplayers when it hired, as its on-air handicappers, the Beulah Twins, two generously endowed blonde sisters who looked as if they might have stepped out the pages of Playboy. Their daily

presence on simulcast TVs attracted bettors’ attention to Beulah. The track is imaginative, too, in using its facilities to generate revenue in any way it can. One of this summer’s highlights: a mud volleyball tournament. “We’re trying to do anything creative to stay alive,” General Manager Mike Weiss said. Nothing will create greater interest among bettors than a wager with a big potential payoff —as the tracks in California and New York demonstrate every time they have a large carryover in the Pick Six. Weiss had observed that a hybrid version of

Quick Fix

6From the blogs at washingtonpost.com/sports

REDSKINS INSIDER

Texans official introduced as Swanson’s replacement

Tony Wyllie, the top public

relations official of the Houston Texans, will join the Redskins, replacing Karl Swanson as senior vice president. Wyllie, who has spent the last 10 seasons as the Texans’ vice president of communications and will focus on public relations with the Redskins, was not immediately available to comment. He was the NFL’s youngest public relations director when he joined the Tennessee Oilers in 1998. Two years later, he joined the Texans’ staff in Houston, where he was raised and attended Texas Southern University. Wyllie and his staff earned the

Pete Rozelle Award, presented annually by Pro Football Writers of America to the league’s top PR staff, a total of four times, including twice with the Texans (2004 and 2007).

— Rick Maese

CHAT REWIND

“In Philly, maybe the security people should vomit on the guy?”

TELEVISION AND RADIO

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

1 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m.

NBA PLAYOFFS

9 p.m.

Baltimore at New York Yankees » MASN, WTNT (570 AM)

Atlanta at Washington » MASN, WXTR (730 AM), WFED (820 AM, 1500 AM)

St. Louis at Philadelphia » ESPN

RECRUITING INSIDER

Princeton Day’s McKnight says he’s headed to Iowa State

Only a few weeks ago,

Princeton Day Academy forward Eric McKnight was unsure of his college plans. “I’m open right now,”

McKnight said after playing in the preliminary game for the Capital Classic, listing Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers and George Washington as schools that had shown interest in him but adding that none had offered a scholarship. Less than two weeks later,

Iowa State lost its coach, Todd McDermott, to Creighton and subsequently hired Fred Hoiberg. While the Cyclones had shown mild interest in the 6-foot-9 McKnight, a native of Raleigh, N.C., earlier in the process, things suddenly heated up, according to Princeton Day Coach Van Whitfield. Now, McKnight is bound for

Ames.

— Josh Barr

KLMNO

WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS

First Things First: Join columnist Tracee Hamilton weekday mornings at 9:30 to discuss the hottest topics from the world of sports.

WEDNESDAY,MAY 5, 2010

WASHINGTON POST LIVE WITH IVAN CARTER

5 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet

Dave Winfield, Ron Thompson and Nats exec Andy Feffer join The Post’s Tracee Hamilton and Mike Wise.

Beulah Park: Attractive betting product pays off for Ohio track

ANDREW BEYER

the Pick Six had been phenomenally successful at an otherwise struggling track in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He tweaked the rules and introduced Beulah’s version of the wager in 2006. In a conventional Pick Six, of course, bettors try to select six consecutive winners; if nobody does so, about half of the day’s wagering pool goes into a jackpot that grows until bettors do hit a perfect ticket. The Fortune 6 offers a few twists on this familiar format. The betting unit is only 25 cents instead of the customary $2. And the jackpot is paid out only when a single ticket has all six winners. If more than one bettor picks six winners, they share 40 percent of the pool and the rest goes into the jackpot. The Beulah wager paid a record $364,589 in 2007, but this spring the pot grew even larger, thriving under conditions that are ordinarily anathema to a Pick Six. Beulah’s long winter-spring season was drawing to a close,

and its horse population was thinned out. The track could rarely muster a full field. Uncompetitive six- and seven-horse races, with short-priced winners, were commonplace. After the Fortune 6 jackpot grew into six figures, simulcast players started taking notice and betting more than $50,000 a day trying to hit it. But with so many small fields,

a six-race sequence never produced a bunch of long-shot winners that would eliminate all but one Fortune 6 ticket. Moreover, with the 25-cent betting unit, players making a serious investment could blanket most of the plausible combinations. Winning the jackpot was virtually impossible. Yet bettors kept betting. (I can attest that, while recognizing the futility of the quest, I, too, was drawn to the Fortune 6 like a moth to a flame.) The jackpot pool had grown to $445,000 before Beulah’s race

meeting was scheduled to close Saturday, so on that day the track had to pay out the whole pool regardless of how many perfect tickets existed. Because of the mandatory pool, bettors wagered with gusto on a lineup of decent-quality races (by Beulah standards), putting more than $700,000 into the Fortune 6 on Saturday. The results were all logical, with favorites taking three of the races, so nobody won a fortune. The payoff was $3,750 for a 25-cent ticket. The big winner was Beulah.

Not only did the Fortune 6 generate robust betting during the weeks when the jackpot was growing, but players were betting much more on conventional wagers. If a handicapper had studied six races in depth, he was apt to hold some opinions that prompted him to play exactas and trifectas, too. The impact on Beulah’s business was noticeable, sometimes boosting its total daily handle by hundreds of thousands

of dollars. Every racetrack should be trying to create exotic bets that have a similar impact. The possibilities are endless. Here’s one: Laurel Park and Colonial Downs regularly run wide-open, 14-horse fields on their turf courses. Why not offer a special High Five (a bet that requires picking the first five finishers in order) on such a race once a day? The tracks could jump-start betting by guaranteeing a minimum $25,000 pool; if nobody held a perfect ticket, the entire pool would go into a jackpot for the next day. It would be easy to generate six-figure jackpots that would stir the juices of the betting public. Beulah’s experience should be

instructive. A track can sometimes succeed without a high-quality racing product. It can succeed without a large fan base. All it needs is a little imagination.

sports@washpost.com

Hot Topic D.C. Sports Bog

Blog excerpt from washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog

A year for this town to forget

Area teams and their fans endure letdowns, meltdowns and utter debacles

by Dan Steinberg

Beware the temptation to attach superlatives to the most recent anything, as in, that chunk of aged Gouda I just had was the most delicious piece of cheese the universe has ever seen, LeBron’s elbow grimace is the most embarrassing nonsense from a league MVP in modern memory, my decade with The Washington Post coincided with the worst decade for newsprint since the 17th century, and so on.

Still, let me ask: Were the past 12 months, May 1-April 30, possibly the worst in D.C. sports history? ESPN 980’s Andy Pollin recently asked

that question on his blog, before deciding that, at least in the post-Senators era, this most recent stretch of failure was only the

second worst.

Pollin’s worst 12 months came in

Tracee Hamilton, in her morning chat Tuesday, bringing up a previous incident at a Phillies game in conjunction with Monday night’s taser incident.

San Antonio at Phoenix » TNT

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9:30 p.m.

SOCCER

2:55 p.m. 7 p.m.

Boston at Philadelphia » Versus Chicago at Vancouver » Versus

English Premier League, Manchester City vs. Tottenham » ESPN2

MLS, Kansas City at D.C. United » ESPN2; Spanish WDCN (87.7 FM)

only from Comcast.

PRO BASKETBALL

‘Los Suns’ jerseys will return for Game 2

The Phoenix Suns plan to wear

law.”

“Los Suns” on their jerseys in Game 2 of the Western Confer- ence semifinals Wednesday, own- er Robert Sarver said, “to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation.” The decision to wear the jer-

seys on the Cinco de Mayo holi- day stems from a law passed by the Arizona Legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer that has drawn widespread criticism from Latino organizations and civil rights groups that say it could lead to racial profiling of

Hispanics. President Obama has

called the law “misguided.” Sarver, who was born and

raised in Tucson, said frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the illegal im- migration issue led to the passage of what he called “a flawed state

Sarver came up with the “Los Suns” jersey idea but left it up to the players for the final decision, Suns guard Steve Nash said, and all of them were for it. San Antonio Coach Gregg Po-

povich said his team was inter- ested in taking part but couldn’t get new “Los Spurs” road jerseys in time for the game. . . . A nuisance as an NBA player,

Danny Ainge is still being a pest as a general manager. Boston’s general manager was

spotted in television replays throwing a white towel in the air to distract Cleveland forward J.J. Hickson at the free throw line in the third quarter of Game 2 on Monday night. Ainge, sitting in the first seat to the right of Cleveland’s basket, is seen reaching behind the stan- chion to grab one of the ball boy’s

1988-89, when the Redskins went from the Super Bowl to 7-9, the Bullets missed the playoffs at 40-42, the Caps fell to the Flyers in the first round, star-studded Georgetown missed the Final Four and Maryland basketball went 1-13 in the ACC, leading to the resignation of Bob Wade and prompting Tony Kornheiser to describe the program as "literally and figuratively at ground zero." But I’m sorry, the past 12 months match up just fine. One more time, for history’s sake:  The Nats finished with 100 losses for a second straight season, making them one of only four baseball franchises over the past 25 years to reach the century mark two seasons in a row.  Maryland football ended its season with seven straight losses to finish 2-10, its worst record since 1967.  The Redskins went 4-12, failing to win five games for just the third time since 1963. That record cost the coach, the quarterback, and the executive vice president of football operations their jobs. Also, they turned the offense over to a bingo caller.  Georgetown became the biggest upset victim in the NCAA tournament’s first round, losing to 14th-seeded Ohio. The Hoyas allowed 97 points, the most a 14 seed had surrendered in the first round

JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Austin Freeman and the Georgetown Hoyas suffered a miserable end to their season.

since the tournament expanded.  Maryland basketball was on the wrong end of one of the most brutal NCAA tournament finishes, getting felled by a Michigan State three-pointer with no time on the clock in the second round.  At 26-56, the Wizards weren’t close to being historically bad — they’ve had a worse record eight times in the past 20 years. However, none of those teams saw their best player end the season in a

halfway house. Or their owner die.  The Caps had, by just about any measure, the best regular season in their history. But they were the first No. 1 seed to blow a 3-1 series lead to a No. 8 seed, they became just the fifth major U.S. team to lose a Game 7 three years in a row. In conclusion, what was it Flip Saunders said? Oh yeah. "Don’t think it can’t get any worse.”

steinbergd@washpost.com

DIGEST

towels as Hickson prepares to shoot. Ainge then tosses the tow- el into the air on Hickson’s sec- ond attempt with 1 minute 53 sec- onds remaining.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank

said he was unaware of Ainge’s actions. . . . Tayshaun Prince could get a chance for a second gold medal, and rookies Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry have a shot at a first. Those players, plus former

Georgetown star Jeff Green,

were added to the U.S. national team’s roster for 2010-12. That brings the number of players in the pool to 31. Prince was a reserve on the

2008 gold medalists. He becomes the 10th player from that team to commit to returning. That leaves only the injured Michael Redd and Jason Kidd, who said he was retiring from international com- petition. USA Basketball also an-

nounced it will hold training camp in Las Vegas on July 19-23, with an intrasquad scrimmage at Thomas & Mack Center on July 24.

Another camp will follow in

New York before the world cham- pionships.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Kevin Nickelberry was an-

nounced as men’s basketball coach at Howard on Tuesday. Nickelberry, 45, had been named just last month as an as- sistant coach at DePaul under Oli- ver Purnell, for whom Nickelber- ry worked for three seasons at Clemson. Nickelberry spent the previous year as the head coach of the Libyan national basketball team.

Nickelberry, a District native who played for Central High, is making a return both to being a head coach in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and to How- ard.

He served as head coach at

Hampton from 2006 to 2009. One of his first coaching jobs was as an assistant at Howard from 1994 to ’98.

—Staff reports

GOLF

Tiger Woods says the Titleist irons for sale on eBay were not the ones he used to win four con- secutive majors through the 2001 Masters.

A former Titleist tour rep is of- fering Woods’s irons on eBay with a minimum opening bid of $250,000. Woods said that while those might be his clubs, they weren’t the ones he used in winning the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship and Masters in a span of 294 days. Steve Mata tells a different

story. He says when he swapped out irons in New York in the sum- mer of 2001, Woods told him to keep the previous set.

Mata has been unemployed the

last 17 months and says he needs the money.

PRO FOOTBALL

All-Pro linebacker Patrick Wil-

lis has developed into an NFL star under Hall of Fame lineback- er Mike Singletary, and the 49ers coach expects his top defender to become better than he ever was. The standout middle lineback- er signed a five-year, $50 million contract extension with the 49ers that takes him through the 2016 season and includes $29 million in guaranteed money. He is set to make $10 million per season. Locking up Willis for the long haul makes sure the 49ers keep their dominant defensive leader after they bolstered their offense in the draft with two linemen picked 11th and 17th overall —

Rutgers’s Anthony Davis and

Mike Iupati out of Idaho.

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