Lone Star meet ends with mixed returns

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Lone Star Park closed out its 50-date meet Saturday night with mixed numbers. Attendance and handle for the track’s live races both declined over the corresponding 50-date meet a year ago, while an increase in business on incoming simulcasts helped the track’s overall bottom line remain on par with last season.

Lone Star handled an average of $897,758 a day on its live races at this meet, down 6 percent from last year’s average of $958,489, according to figures provided by the track. Of the total live handle, an average of $623,884 a day was bet on the track’s races offsite, a drop of 9 percent, and $273,875 ontrack, which ran even with 2013.

Scott Wells, president and general manager of Lone Star, declined to comment on the drop in live handle. He did, however, discuss field size, which averaged 8.2 starters a race at this meet compared with 8.3 in 2013. Back in 2011, the track averaged 8.9.

“We started off with good field sizes, and we had good field size in the end,” he said. “There was a period in the middle we were light on field size. But overall, we received good support from the horsemen based on their ability. Things are going to get better in Texas.”
Attendance at this meet averaged 6,990 patrons a card, down 7 percent from last year’s 7,519.

“Those attendance numbers are skewed somewhat by number of concerts,” Wells said. “We did have a reduced number of concerts this year. Aside from the raw numbers of attendance, it’s very important to note that our group sales are up dramatically on Thursday and Saturday nights, and those people who attended in those groups are customers for the future.”

Lone Star raced Thoroughbreds on Saturday nights for the first time at this meet, and Wells said in light of the group sales success, the plan is to again race Saturday nights in 2015.

Lone Star’s handle on incoming simulcasts averaged $496,255 a day, up 12 percent and a figure that brought overall average daily handle at the track to $1,394,013, off just 1 percent. Daily purses were also off just 1 percent at $142,709.