Lone Star sees business gains across the board in 2018

Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, closed out its meet Thursday night with handle on its races averaging more than $1 million a program for the first time since 2010, according to track officials. Lone Star also experienced an increase in average daily attendance during the season that ended at 41 dates after the final three programs were lost due to record heat in the area. The meet originally was to close Sunday.

Last year, Lone Star raced 50 dates for Thoroughbreds.

Lone Star handled an average $1,068,806 a card on its live races from all sources this meet, up 14.7 percent over the corresponding meet a year ago, according to figures from the track. Of that amount, handle offtrack averaged $829,134 a program for a 17.6 percent increase over 2017, and handle ontrack, $239,672 a program, up 5.7 percent.

Scott Wells, president of Lone Star, said he believes a handful of factors drove off-track handle up significantly in 2018.

“One of the things is we made a $900,000 investment in getting our broadcast in high definition,” he said of the track’s signal. “It just made it more palatable to people. We’ve gotten a lot more exposure. We think that’s been a part of it.

“I think the other thing is the quality of our racing has been a little bit better this year. Some of that probably relates to the fact that the purses were increased. And we’ve got some really good human and equine performers that have raced here this year. For the second year in a row, a horse goes from [our] Steve Sexton Mile to win the Met Mile.”

Bee Jersey swept both races this year, following the trick that Mor Spirit pulled in 2017. Wells also noted that the Lone Star Park Handicap won by Shotgun Kowboy drew Mubtaahij, an earner of $5.7 million whom he believes is the richest horse to have ever competed at Lone Star.

Purses, which were increased ahead of the start of the meet in April, averaged $169,822 a program this season, according to figures from Lone Star. Last year, the average was $151,157. Lone Star averaged 8.4 starters per race, according to figures from the track, which was up over 2017.

Attendance ontrack averaged 6,897, which was up more than 3 percent over 2017.

“One of our biggest sources of growth has been group sales,” said Wells.

Wells said Lone Star started its meet a little later this year to be closer to the date of the Kentucky Derby in an experiment and given the results of the season, the track has asked the Texas Racing Commission for 2019 dates that mirror 2018. He said Lone Star has requested a 44-date program from April 18-July 21.

"We hope to see the Texas racing industry gain strength in the coming years and allow us to run more days,” Wells said. “For the time being, we have come upon a balance that so far this year is working well. We think this is a good time slot for us.”

Some of the Texas tracks are running shorter meets in 2018 due to a new regulatory fee schedule increase for the state’s tracks that was passed late last year in response to a budget crisis at the Texas Racing Commission.

End Zone Athletics, led by principal owner Karl Broberg, captured the owner title with 39 victories from 111 starts, according to standings from Lone Star. The stable earned $477,181, according to Equibase.

Broberg won his second Lone Star training title with 69 wins from 230 starts. The stable’s starters earned $943,021. Steve Asmussen led all trainers in stable earnings with $1,071,089.

Jockey Richard Eramia won the riding title with 77 wins from 264 starts and he also led all riders in mount earnings with $1,139,587.