Can virtual become reality?
DigiTurf.com
Horses aren't machines; this much we've learned. Not all get pumped up by a 22-pound heart like Secretariat. Not all are 1,200-pound tanks like Forego, capable of winning 34 times in 57 starts. These days, we get slap-happy when we see a 3-year-old turn 4 right before our handicapping eyes.
But there are places in cyberspace where the race horses roam for years, competing at the highest levels when flesh-and-blood horses already would have been pensioned from breeding duty. Take, for instance, the career of I Am the King. Over the "e-tracks" of DigiTurf.com, the 18-year-old workhorse racked up a record 212 victories from 343 starts.
Laugh all you want. Purchased in real money for $15, I Am The King earned his owner $37,511.54 in real cash.
As we've seen over the past few decades, sporting games can be big business. The synergies between virtual sports and the Real McCoy have become part of the American landscape. Popular game titles like EA Sports' Madden and NCAA football series not only are recreation for kids and grown-ups who still love being kids, but the participants in the real games also are big fans. NFL and collegiate players openly critique their skill ratings in the games and use them as trash-talking badges of virtual honor. Golfers and race car drivers of all skill levels also have been known to use video games as simulators to learn the nuances of a particular par four or racetrack banking.
Video games won't replace the real Tiger Woods or Jeff Gordon, that's for sure. But they do help build the fan experience and allegiance to a particular brand. For an industry like horse racing that struggles to replenish its fan base with younger participants, the technology of online gaming could conceivably be an area of interest. But rather than gaming serve as a lure to new fans, one prominent online gamer said it's really an enhancement of interested customers.
"Most people playing racing games online are horse-racing fans already," said Michael Moore, who at age 37 is a six-year veteran of the DigiTurf scene and operates a virtual stable today that numbers more than 110 horses. "It's the same as real life, in that, if you had no knowledge of horse racing, trying to look at the Racing Form the first time would get a 'What the heck are all these numbers?' kind of response. There's a learning curve until you understand horse racing.
"When I first got into horse racing (as a teenager), I got into it on the betting level, trying to handicap and bet races. But most people don't want to put the time into learning it. It amazes me the people that the slots draw. It's mindless to me. It's crazy, but people love it."
An aspiring trainer who has worked on the farm of trainer Danny Lopez, Moore's "day job" is that of an assistant starter at Philadelphia Park racetrack. The job of an assistant starter, or "gate crew" member as they're often called in the industry, is to help load the horses into the starting gate before the race, and to work with them in the morning to learn the process. Among his prized pupils was 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, with whom Moore and others helped develop at Maryland's Fair Hill Training Center.
"I was around the track at Philadelphia Park when Smarty Jones was here, but I didn't work with him at the gate," Moore said. "I did work with Barbaro at Fair Hill. We 'okay'd' him from the gate before he ran the first time at Delaware Park. It was really cool to see him come back there after winning the Derby and all the media attention then. We knew him before he was a star."
Moore, too, someday hopes to have some star power of his own as a trainer. Despite earning a degree in English from Rutgers and a set of parents who urged him for a "white-collar career," he's fallen in love with all things horse racing. "There's a point in your life when your parents realize they can't stop you from what you love," he joked.
For a young man who has some interest in a few horses, works a full-time morning and afternoon job and also does some dental work on horses, Moore epitomizes many racing fans with his tireless interest and devotion.
"I love horse racing and when I'm done with my day at the track and working with my real horses for the day, I look forward to coming home and flipping open my laptop and watching virtual races," said Moore, who typically runs seven or eight virtual horses from his stable every day at DigiTurf.
Moore has ascended to become one of the most successful virtual owners, with his Tri M Fent Stables winning more than 2,200 races and approaching $180,000 in purses won. The all-time DigiTurf king, a German racing enthusiast whose stable goes by Pillbutt, has won more than 12,000 races and $1 million in purses. He, too, has had a modest ownership stake in some real race horses. But for Moore, he'd trade the virtual success for the real thing any day of the week.
"I tell my friends that someday I wish my training career would emulate my DigiTurf career," he said. "You have to win some races to get noticed. In that way, for me, virtual racing emulates real horse racing. You need experience and to observe real problems and how to handle them. I see a few similarities in concept.
"But the virtual horses don't get sick or hurt, and they can run constantly. That's not the real world. As far as placing a horse where he belongs, knowing the 'condition book' and being honest with yourself where a horse should be running -- and not what you want them to be running for -- that's good practice for the management side of things.
"But owning and training my own real horses is on such a different level. To me, a $10,000 claimer is a big deal in real life. There's no comparison when it comes to the hands-on care that goes into watching your horse win a race."
But until he's discovered as the next Todd Pletcher, or even local hero John Servis, Moore will continue to enjoy the online competitiveness and camaraderie of the gaming community.
"The DigiTurf game can be very frustrating just like real horse racing," he said. "Bad spells, tough beats, you go through them all. You see real good stables in real life go cold, and you do online, too. It teaches you patience. There's only one winner in every race and a lot of losers."
Jeremy Plonk has been an ESPN.com contributor since 2000 and is the managing partner of the handicapping website Horseplayerpro.com. You can E-mail Jeremy about this topic or anything racing-related at Jeremy@Horseplayerpro.com.
