Fonner Park begins final week, which includes a pick five mandatory payout

Fonner Park moves into its final week of the meet Monday with an eight-race card. The Grand Island, Neb., track is commemorating a memorable season by giving horsemen a special keepsake – a T-shirt that reads: Fon The little track that could!

Fonner, the five-furlong oval that on Monday features an entry-level allowance for fillies and mares bred in Nebraska, reached new handle levels this season. The T-shirt is a means of thanking horsemen for their support as the track was one of the few racing during the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fonner had a captive audience during its Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule, and even began simulcasting its races to such faraway destinations as Australia, England, France, and South Africa.

“We were one of the only shows in town,” said Chris Kotulak, chief executive officer of Fonner.

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Kotulak has been charting handle figures in separate stages. He said the first three weeks of the meet, which were conducted with ontrack spectators, handle averaged $222,309 per card.

The track then shifted to Monday-through-Wednesday racing with no spectators due to the pandemic and for the first two weeks handled an average of $2.1 million per card. Kotulak said the third week into that schedule Fonner reached peak viewership and for about six weeks averaged approximately $3.5 million per day in handle. He said last week, with racing resuming at more tracks, handle has been averaging $3 million.

“Our final three days may be a roller coaster,” Kotulak said in an email. “We race Memorial Day in the wake of Gulfstream Park, Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, and Golden Gate. Tuesday, we are the only daytime track in North America, and Wednesday we have a mandatory payout in the Dinsdale late pick five wager.”

Kotulak said the exposure has been important, but the driving force behind Fonner doing all it could to keep racing was to maintain the livelihood of horsemen.

“My whole goal was to not become a refugee camp for horses and horsemen,” Kotulak said in a phone interview. “It’s hard for people to understand, but when we consider the lost revenue from the lack of people in the grandstand that would be providing food and beverage and seating revenue, it’s going to be almost an ironic wash – what we gained in unexpected mutuel handle and the loss of revenue in what the races would have typically brought, not having ontrack revenue.

“Having said that, we were able to fill our boots with purse money for next year. That was my second primary goal.”

Miss Elise is the one to beat in the feature Monday, off a runner-up finish at this distance and level in her last two starts. Jake Olesiak has the mount for trainer Daniel Coughlin.