Remington's handle jumps

An expanded simulcast network helped Remington Park in Oklahoma City experience a 48-percent increase in handle on its live races during its 67-night meet that ended Saturday. The season was the first Thoroughbred meet under the ownership of Global Gaming, a Chickasaw Nation subsidiary that last year purchased the facility for $80 million from MI Developments.

Remington handled an average of $808,645 a card on its live races this meet. Of the handle amount this meet, an average $724,806 was bet on the track’s races offsite, up 53 percent. Remington handled another $75,366 a night on its races ontrack, up 15 percent, while $8,472 a card was bet at the track’s four OTBs in Oklahoma, down 6 percent from last year, when the track operated six OTB’s.

Remington’s races went into some 800 sites this meet compared with 300 last year, according to the track’s president, Scott Wells.

“We’ve been successful in marketing our signal to a much wider distribution network,” he said. Remington, which operates an ontrack casino, averaged $215,582 a day in purses this meet, up 7 percent. There was an average of 10.1 starters per race, which was up from 9.5 in 2009.

Cliff Berry won his 13th riding title with 76 wins from 366 starts, for mount earnings of $1.7 million. Steve Asmussen won his sixth training title at Remington, with 47 wins from 241 starts. His stable earned $842,739. There was a three-way tie for leading owner, between Danny Caldwell, Poindexter Thoroughbreds, and the partnership of Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch. Each won 11 races this meet at Remington.