as seen on phillyBurbs.com

Horse sense
Four cheers for Smarty Jones. One for each hoof.

I know. I know. It's supposed to be three cheers. But since a $5 bet on the Pennsylvania thoroughbred netted me $15 more Saturday, I feel an added cheer is in order for the extra Andrew Jackson in my wallet.

Hey, I'm between paychecks and rent was due last week, leaving my wallet a bit bare.

It also marked the first time I've bet money at a horse track, even by proxy, in probably five years.

Judging by the huge crowd reportedly packing Smarty's home track on Saturday, Philadelphia Park, to watch the Kentucky Derby, I wasn't the only one putting up some green.

Heck, Gov. Ed Rendell himself ponied up $20.

So much for the notion that Pennsylvania's race tracks are dying and the $10 billion industry can't survive without being turned into racinos. Rendell and the Legislature have been trying to foist that idea on us for two years, when all the "sport" really needed was a big winner. Something that would make it attractive to gamblers my age, who rarely go to the track or bet by phone.

Think Borgata with a bushy tail and you have half the picture.

The other half is more an educational process, explaining the allure of racing.

Sure the days of betting parlors filled with sleazy characters at the track are gone. They died with my parents' generation coming of age. But the notion that a horse race is as easy to fix as a boxing match still lingers.

The complex odds calculations also throw off the casual bettor. When I woke up Saturday, Smarty was paying 9-2 - that means for every $2 bet, you reap $9 if the horse wins. A few hours and raindrops later, those odds fell to 4-1. Why and how is simply beyond me. If a casino in Atlantic City tried that at a blackjack table, I'd storm out and claim I was being cheated.

Adding slot machines, and eventually gaming tables, to the state-owned racetracks will do little to change that image. It will just create more addicted gamblers, while saving others a two-hour trip through New Jersey. The social costs near those parks will be staggering.

Think of all the pawn shops lining Route 413 near Philly Park now and multiply them 10 fold. It's not a pretty picture, is it?

Meanwhile, state and local governments will become hopelessly addicted to gambling revenue, depending on the money racinos rake in from the addicted to balance their budgets.

If the measure does pass this year, one of the first uses of the added money should be to restore the now-defunct Philadelphia mounted police.

The Philadelphia Daily News reported last Friday that the city finally stopped its horse police patrols, favoring motorcycles and bike patrols. It's a bad way to save money in my mind.

I can still remember back in college walking on South Street with my friend, Lou Trefz, and our dates when we saw a group of hooligans literally dragging an elderly oriental man down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. The media used to call such attacks "wildings" back in the '80s.

I looked at Lou. Him at me. And we both told our dates to stay put.

Just as we stepped foot into the street toward the thugs, in rode the mounted police on their tall steeds like the cavalry to save the day. The boys scattered, but Lou and I picked them out of the crowd and the cops had no problem gathering them up and throwing them into a van.

I sincerely doubt those same policeman would have been able to eye the attackers from atop a motorcycle or a 10-speed.

I also remember full well how little those methods had at truly deterring an angry mob during the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philly, which I covered as a reporter for this Web site.

And who can forget the horse patrols in the Vet during the ninth inning to keep the fans from pouring onto the field when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980?
 
Those days are gone now. The horses put out to pasture.

BOWA NEED NOT SWEAT IT

It isn't much of a vote of confidence, but in an unscientific online poll conducted here last week, voters overwhelmingly said that if Larry Bowa can survive this month, he'll be the Phillies' skipper through the year.

In the end, 36 percent of votes cast say that Bowa will be fired by June 1 while a whopping 46 percent said he will keep his job through the season.

Dave Ralis' Pave The Grass column appears on Mondays. You can send him an e-mail at  or call him at 215-269-5051. To read his previous columns, click here.