Eddie Olczyk sees fantasy sports players squinting over stats like a tax attorney looking for loopholes and he wonders why they couldn't be poring over the Daily Racing Form instead.
"When you think about horse racing, on any Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you can have action every three or four minutes if you want it," said Olczyk, best known as a former hockey player-turned-TV analyst for the Blackhawks and NBC but just as passionate when it comes to playing the horses. "It's right there for you."
Olczyk is keenly aware the sport of kings needs to do a better job of selling itself, especially to new generations of would-be devotees, if it's to survive and thrive.
That mission informs NBC Sports' seven hours of cable and broadcast coverage Saturday around the Kentucky Derby, one of the few days each year when even people who wouldn't know a trifecta from taffeta are at least vaguely aware of racing.
And, as has become his custom in recent years, Olczyk again will take a break from working on NBC's Stanley Cup playoffs telecasts to contribute insights to its Triple Crown coverage. The idea is to make handicapping the races more accessible.
"I see the fantasy sports, and I see the boom and all the money," Olczyk said. "I sit there and go, well, that's what horse racing has been forever, and that's one of the thing horse racing needs to do a better job on. Then maybe you would get the younger people."
That rush from analyzing past performance, predicting how things will go, identifying value in the field others might miss in competing for a share of pooled money? Welcome to parimutuel wagering.
"I've been trying to tell people that about horse racing for the last 30 or 35 years of my life," said Olczyk, 50, whose love with racing began as a teen. "That's the thing I was captivated by.
"There was something about the animals and the action and obviously a beautiful race track like Arlington (Park)," he said. "It became a way to get away from hockey as I got older and it's always been a great love and passion of mine. ... By the time I was 18, 19 years old, I was in it for the long haul. It was the game for me."
Past performance: Since he first joined NBC's racing coverage in June 2014, Olczyk's affection for thoroughbreds has been covered extensively.
Yes, he once hit a Pick 6 wager _ essentially betting on six races at once _ worth $497,000. He brought the Stanley Cup his New York Rangers won to be nuzzled by Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin at Belmont Park. He got his start in broadcasting by helping out with in-house racing coverage at New Jersey's Meadowlands Racetrack during the 1994-95 NHL lockout.
Olczyk views hockey as similar to horse racing in that each wins fans more readily when the sports is seen in person. Only some of their appeal comes through the TV.
"It is up to us to get people, and I fight these same battles when it comes to hockey," Olczyk said.
