Ohio’s racing industry seems to have a lot of promise. Owners of the three Thoroughbred tracks have promised to spend half a billion dollars on new racing facilities and casinos. Horsemen have been guaranteed approximately 10 percent of the casinos’ net revenues for purses. Ohio breeders will share in the largesse with rich additions to the state’s breeding fund.
So how come it’s hard to find anyone smiling?
TUCSON, Ariz. - Anyone who enjoyed "Thirty Tons a Day," the little-read but peculiarly seminal racetrack management book, probably had their senses tingling on Wednesday afternoon at the Global Symposium on Racing and Gaming during a presentation by Kelly Spencer, the marketing manager at tiny Grand River Raceway in rural Ontario.
TUCSON, Ariz. – It is, to some people, the most critical question currently facing the struggling racing industry. Where should a racetrack focus its discretionary spending: on the ontrack experience, or the marketing of its simulcast product?
Handle on U.S. races in November was down marginally compared with November figures last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by Equibase. The decline in handle was accompanied by a larger decline in race dates during the month.
Handle was down 0.7 percent, to $867.9 million, according to the figures, while race dates during the month declined 3.3 percent, from 392 last year to 379 this year. As a result, average handle per race date during November was up 2.6 percent, from $2.23 million last year to $2.29 million this year.
TUCSON, Ariz. - The emergence of so-called "social games" - games that are played on social-networking websites - and racing's unique position as the only form of legalized online gambling are creating incentives for companies to create sometimes novel, sometimes bizarre games tied to the sport.
The New York State Racing and Wagering Board on Thursday passed rules regulating the use of shock-wave therapy on horses that will prohibit a horse from receiving the painkilling treatment 10 days prior to being entered for a race.
The Louisiana Racing Commission has suspended owner-trainer Joseph Randy Hebert a total of three years after eight horses in his care tested positive for benzonatate, a Class 2 medication violation. All of the horses won their races during a two-week span in July at the Delta Downs meet for Quarter Horses. Hebert has a 30-day window to appeal, but his suspension will begin Dec. 2, said a spokesperson for the commission. The purses of the races Hebert’s starters won were ordered redistributed.
