Triple Crown buzz wafts away like puff of smoke at race book

It was Monday morning after the Belmont, and Kenny Mayne, the former UNLV quarterback and cha-cha dancer on “Dancing with the Stars” — and ongoing ESPN personality and horse racing enthusiast — still was carrying on about American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown, via his Twitter account.

Another Twitter user, @pgabilly, was giving him a hard time, saying he was two days late with that stuff.

“I feel a Triple Crown has at least 48 hours of Twitter life” @Kenny_Mayne responded.

Some people said if American Pharoah won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it might save horse racing, or at least create a buzz that would last more than 48 hours.

It had been 37 years since a 3-year-old had done it. Spectators — especially young spectators — weren’t attending horse races anymore, not even when the tracks put on concerts featuring washed-up alternative bands after the races.

It was a great story, but I don’t think American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown is going to save horse racing any more than I thought the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was going to save boxing. And not just because that fight was a stinker.

People have a tendency to want to save things. This may explain why Dr. Phil is popular. Then, like @pgabilly, they move on to the NBA playoffs and other pastimes and leisure pursuits, because you just never know when LeBron is going to adjust his game — and whatnot — on national TV.

It’s good that Del Mar and some of these other tracks are trying to cultivate a new fan base by putting on concerts after the ponies run — and it’s really good for The Wallflowers and Weezer.

And there always will be a Kentucky Derby and big ladies’ hats, because the Derby is a fine American tradition. Same with the hats. There always will be a Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, too, because without them, you can’t have a Triple Crown.

On Saturday, there was horse racing at Gulfstream and Belmont Park and 35 other tracks, which may not seem like a lot compared to baseball, for which there were roughly 270 teams in action requiring 135 stadiums and ballparks encompassing the major and minor leagues.

But fewer people are attending baseball games, too. And NASCAR races. And a lot of other sports.

When I was younger, the Cleveland Indians played at cavernous Municipal Stadium, which seated 81,000 fans and one guy in the center-field bleachers incessantly beating on a tom-tom. The Tribe’s current home, Progressive Field, seats 43,345.

Progressive Field opened in 1994, three years before Grand Theft Auto I came out on Playstation I. Now we’re up to GTA V and Playstation IV and at least a couple of Xboxes. The graphics are amazing.

So if young people aren’t interested in horse racing, I sort of understand it.

Back in Secretariat’s day, cable TV still was a 35-1 long shot. There weren’t a lot of channels. TVs were low definition, and either came disguised as a piece of furniture or with rabbit ears.

If you wanted to see the game or the race, you pretty much had to buy a ticket. Now TV is broadcast in high definition, and the sets are roughly the size of Montana. Now you’re better off staying home.

So the parents of the young people aren’t going to horse races, either.

Last week, the race book at the South Point was buzzing, and there was a Triple Crown viewing party in one of the ballrooms.

On Saturday, one week after American Pharoah’s historic triumph, the race book was about half full. I would have guessed the median age of those putting down wagers to be about 60.

Mary Jungers, the race book manager, and Laine Drake, one of her supervisors, said you can’t always judge a sport by the number of people sitting in the betting parlor. Except maybe for the NFL.

Laine said there’s a little track in Iowa called Prairie Meadows, and on Thursday, which isn’t that great a day for horse racing — not even in Des Moines — the on-site handle was only $29,000. The off-track handle was more than $500,000.

So maybe horse racing isn’t dying. Maybe it’s just coughing a little and being put on a credit card.

I saw a quote from a track owner the other day who said the average horse racing fan is 82 years old and smokes a cigar.

You can’t smoke cigars at the South Point race book anymore. You have to go to the lounge next door.

Vito Pizzi, formerly of New Jersey, and his pal Ralph Preta, formerly of Brooklyn, were smoking fat cigars and betting on ponies. Ralph’s cigar was a Victor Sinclair Vintage Select from the Dominican Republic. It was about as thick as your wrist, but Ralph said it cost only $3.

He said he has been betting on the ponies since he was 12, which you can do where he’s from, provided you know the right people. He tried to introduce his children to horse racing. They weren’t interested.

Vito thought American Pharoah’s Triple Crown would create at least short-term interest in horse racing. Then he dropped his cigar, a stubby hand-rolled Gurkha, getting ashes all over his Daily Racing Form.

Vito said he was 73; Ralph is 68.

So for at least one day, it seemed horse racing had succeeded in attracting a younger audience.

They were getting ready to run the fifth race at Gulfstream. Older guys were putting out their cigars and heading for the windows.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.