Handle up at Remington

The Remington Park meet in Oklahoma City is experiencing significant increases in handle on its live races a third of the way into its 65-date Thoroughbred meet, according to track officials.

Handle on Remington’s races at its off-track sites is averaging $558,528 a card 20 nights into the meet, a 33 percent increase from an average of $420,188 a card through the corresponding period in 2009. Remington is handling another $83,093 a night on its live races ontrack, up 8 percent from the average $76,675 a card in 2009.

“We changed our weekly racing schedule to a Wednesday through Saturday slate for this season and the adjustment appears to have made a large difference overall, especially in the export handle category,” Scott Wells, president of Remington, said in a release issued by the track.
“I think bettors around the country are beginning to recognize the quality of our racing product and taking advantage of it. We have some of the biggest field sizes in the country, and big field size produces larger payoffs.”

Remington, which had raced Friday through Monday in 2009, has been able to increase its purses sharply over the past few years due to an ontrack casino with 750 electronic gaming machines. The handle gains announced come three weeks before the track’s most significant program, the Oklahoma Derby Day card on Oct. 10.