Remington officials hoping for big business closing day

Remington Park has put up some strong handle figures this meet – including a record Oklahoma Derby Day – and officials are hoping for a big finale Sunday when the season closes with the $400,000 Springboard Mile.

The Kentucky Derby points race is one of six stakes on a 13-race card that has a special afternoon post of 3 p.m. Central. The program drew an average 10.3 horses a race.

“We’re hoping we handle in the neighborhood of $2.5 to $3 million,” said Matt Vance, vice president of racing operations for Remington.

Remington handled $3,086,572 on its Oklahoma Derby Day card Sept. 29 in what was an all-time live handle record for the track. There were 13 races – eight of them stakes – on the card that also had a special late afternoon post on a Sunday.

The average daily handle on live races this meet is running on pace with last year’s $1,071,615 – a victory for the track that at one point in the last month had two barns under quarantine due to a handful of positive tests for equine herpesvirus.

“Right now, we’re [averaging] just over $1 million a day,” Vance said Wednesday. “In light of the challenges we’ve had by the EHV-1, overall we’ve had a good meet. I would say our export numbers continue to be strong, although we had a slight dip in field size last month. That’s all due to the EHV-1, just horses not being able to enter. I’m happy to say since one barn became negative, we’ve had some 10.1 field-size averages.”

The second barn remains under quarantine with a new round of tests set for Monday.

Remington did not accept main-track-only entries this year in a house policy it tested, and Vance said it’s to be determined whether the same protocol will be in place for 2020.

“I think overall it went well,” he said. “We’ll revisit that again next year, and look at all the statistics, and, of course, get comments from horsemen.”

Remington’s season for Thoroughbreds opened in August.