Offtrack wagers key Lone Star handle increase, track says
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Lone Star Park is on pace to close out its meet Sunday with an increase compared to last year in average daily handle on its races, according to figures provided by the track.
Lone Star had handled an average $1,074,805 a day on its live races from all sources through last Sunday, July 15. Of that amount, $832,297 came from bets made offtrack – up 19 percent from the corresponding period in 2017 – and $242,508 from bets made ontrack – up 6 percent.
The figures cover the first 40 days of the 44-date meet at Lone Star. Attendance is averaging 6,978 a day, up 1.45 percent over 2017.
“We’ve had really satisfying growth in attendance and live handle, and astonishing growth in our export,” said Scott Wells, president of Lone Star Park.
Wells said factors behind the double-digit surge in offtrack handle include Lone Star’s signal now being broadcast in high definition, and an improvement in the quality of racing due in part to a purse increase. The boost to purses was announced ahead of the start of the meet, which began April 19.
Wells said Lone Star has requested a near-identical 44-date meet for 2019.
Lone Star Park Racing Club wraps up
That’s a wrap for the inaugural Lone Star Park Racing Club, which won all three of its starts this meet. The group’s final entrant, Peej, was to be scratched from a Saturday race and will be sold to the group’s trainer, J.R. Caldwell, according to racing manager Diantha Brazzell.
The Lone Star Park Racing Club will now disband, Brazzell said, because the contract its 74 owners entered into calls for its closure at the end of the meet Sunday.
“The Lone Star Park Racing Club will end on a good note,” she said.
Brazzell said the stable’s earnings will allow the owners to get their initial $500 investment back, with the reamining money – expected to be more than $7,000 – to be donated to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. There are plans to start a new racing club for the Lone Star meet in 2019.