LOUISIANA DOWNS IS VICTIM OF GROWING CASINOS : RACE TRACK OFFICIALS ARE TRYING TO DEVISE WAYS TO REMAIN OPEN.

Byline: Randy Moss Fort Worth Star-Telegram 

Nine times every weekday afternoon, the image of Louisiana Downs bugler Joe Morello is beamed coast to coast as he strides onto the track to call horses to post for the next race.

But horseplayers in the grandstand look out the window and do a double-take.

Is Joe live or is he Memorex?

Three days a week, Louisiana Downs is replacing its traditional white-sleeved bugler with a videotaped version. Morello now works Saturdays and Sundays only, a high-profile victim of budget cuts.

This is only one small way the racetrack that once billed itself as America's fastest-growing is struggling to trim costs and stay profitable in the face of formidable opposition from three cross-town riverboat casinos.

The predicament is an uncomfortable fit for a proud track: All references to wagering statistics for previous years have been deleted from its media guide. Like almost every other major track, Louisiana Downs has greatly expanded its simulcasting network. But it is taking only about $425,000 in on-site bets on an average afternoon, compared to $1.8 million in 1985. For seven consecutive years, on-track handle has declined from the previous year.

General manager Ray Tromba says Louisiana Downs might finally have ``bottomed out'' after a triple whammy of gambling competition from casinos, in-state betting parlors and out-of-state simulcast sites.

But Tromba and racing secretary Patrick Pope are preparing to take drastic action in the face of yet another impending challenge: the expected entry of Grand Prairie's Lone Star Park onto the summer racing scene in 1997.

Lone Star has applied for 1997 thoroughbred dates of April 17 through July 27. Louisiana Downs typically runs from late April to November.

Tromba confirms that Louisiana Downs, which depends heavily on the East Texas market, is studying a plan to dramatically alter its 1997 schedule to avoid or minimize head-to-head confrontation. The preferred scenario has Louisiana Downs opening in early July and racing to November. That would cut Louisiana Downs' number of dates from the present 118 days to about 80, the minimum required by state law.

Louisiana Downs must present a 1997 dates request to the Louisiana Racing Commission by Aug. 15, three weeks after the Texas Racing Commission is scheduled to allot dates to Lone Star.

``We'll kind of sit behind the pace and see what happens in Texas,'' Tromba said. ``But to make 118 racing days work in this day and age is a difficult chore without any other racetracks coming onto the scene. Add another racetrack to the mix, and shorter meets make a lot of sense.''

By dodging competition and dovetailing its meeting with Lone Star, Louisiana Downs hopes to actually improve its lot. Lone Star wants to begin racing immediately after the conclusion of Oaklawn Park's popular season in Hot Springs, Ark. The respected Pope, also the racing secretary at Oaklawn, theorizes that the opportunity to race at Oaklawn, Lone Star and Louisiana Downs might attract more owners and trainers to the area, benefiting all tracks.

Also, Pope says fewer racing days would enable him to increase daily purses.

Pope understands what is at stake. Even without competition, Louisiana Downs is stabling about 1,080 horses, nearly 300 fewer than capacity.

``Let's face it: If we raced against Lone Star, it would be a bloody war for horses,'' Pope said. ``But with cooperation, maybe everybody can come out ahead.''

Leading trainer Bobby Barnett raced at Louisiana Downs during its 1980s heyday. Now he has to send some of his better horses to other tracks around the country where purses are higher. This week, he put three of his best horses on a van for New Jersey.

``The racing here has declined, like it has in a lot of other places,'' Barnett said. ``A shorter meet and maybe higher purses looks like the only way to go. If we can get a circuit between Oaklawn and Lone Star and Louisiana Downs . . . I'm hoping this will be Louisiana Downs' salvation.''

Louisiana Downs has been accustomed to tough competition during an up-and-down existence.

Billionaire Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. bought 1-year-old Louisiana Downs in 1975 and turned it into one of racing's success stories. Some betting money was siphoned off when off-track betting parlors were opened around Louisiana in 1987, and again when Oaklawn began summer simulcasting in 1991.

But the arrival of riverboats in Shreveport and Bossier City in 1994 dealt a serious blow to horse racing.

Gamblers stood in long lines just to gain entrance to the boats, while the stands at Louisiana Downs emptied. The video poker machines legalized for Louisiana racetracks in 1992 did nothing to stem the tide. Purses had to be slashed, and many top stables left Louisiana for Kentucky.

Even as its track declined, however, the DeBartolo Corp., based in Youngstown, Ohio, made millions in the casino business as part-owners of the fabulously successful Isle Of Capri Casino in Bossier City. It sought a casino license allegedly to protect its investment in Louisiana Downs, but the DeBartolo group has been criticized for putting little of its casino profits into track operations.

Although a deal is in the works for the DeBartolo family to sell its interest in the casino, at last a greater synergy between the track and casino seems to be evolving.

This year, the Isle Of Capri is paying for $250,000 of the $750,000 purse of the Super Derby, the signature race of Louisiana Downs. The casino is also putting up at least $300,000 to supplement other stakes purses.

And Tromba says Louisiana Downs, which seemingly has made little effort in recent years to improve its lot, still has numerous options remaining. The track could ask to replace its video poker machines with the more popular slot machines. It could ask for a reduction in Louisiana's pari-mutuel tax or for a percentage share of casino profits for purses. If necessary, it could try to further reduce racing days to increase quality.

``The casinos are a monster to compete with,'' Tromba said. ``But we've sat here and not played a lot of the cards we have. At some point, we will pursue some of these things to help us improve on what we can do. We've got to figure out how to make this place better by somehow working with the scenario the way it is developing.

``Our profits aren't what they used to be. I wish things were better. But we'll be all right.''