On Wednesday night--yes, Wednesday night--Indiana Downs hosted its richest race of the meet, the $200,000 Oliver Stakes. The result was handle records for a single race and a single card; $379,220 and $2,140,490, respectively, gains of $75,000 and $304.000 per category.
Located at 4200 N. Michigan Blvd. in Shelbyville, it probably doesn’t hurt that Indiana Live!, “the closest casino to Indianapolis,” stands at 4300 N. Michigan. Although called a casino, slots are the only action available for bettors preferring not to allow thinking to interfere with their gambling.
Said Indiana Downs general manager Jon Schuster: “This is exactly how it’s supposed to work on the racing side. Higher purses bring higher quality racing...” For the record, Indiana downs does not make attendance figures available.
Still, handle of $2.1 million on a Wednesday night in a small town in Indiana is impressive no matter how many people were in the building: No wonder neighboring Kentucky is concerned about its own economic future in the gambling business. Indiana slots are killing them.
In New Jersey, meanwhile, Monmouth Park keeps rolling right along. Judging the ultimate success of the “50-day for 50 million” session won‘t be known for months, but the numbers continue to be other worldly. Over 14 days of racing, total handle is up almost 130 percent.
Handle on track has more than doubled, based on attendance gains of 24 percent. Cynics point to the low per capita figures, significantly below triple digits, but Monmouth officials say it’s to be expected when trying to introduce a new audience to the racetrack. Makes sense.
This week, a team appointed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to analyze the synergistic components of racing, gaming, and entertainment in the state was to have its results ready for review. Instead, it was granted a 30-day extension. The new deadline is August 1, Haskell Day, featuring Monmouth’s signature event.
Monmouth Park’s aggressive profile is being matched by the state itself. Two pieces of legislation were recently introduced in the legislature, one allowing online sports wagering, the other permitting betting exchanges, popular and very successful in Great Britain.
Leading betting exchange company Betfair, trying to make inroads inn this country, purchased the racing network/advance deposit wagering platform TVG last year. The tandem is co-sponsoring Monmouth’s second biggest event, Saturday’s prestigious United Nations Handicap for older horses on turf.
Legislation allowing betting exchanges passed this state Assembly unanimously this week. Exchanges have been viewed as too controversial here because in this form of head-to-head wagering, money can be made when horses lose. That has the industry scared to death.
What is not known is whether they fear possible collusion or whether they’re afraid they wouldn’t be able to recognize it when they see it. The system has been abused occasionally in Britain, but the perpetrators were dealt with severely and quickly.
The popularity and success of betting exchanges is based on its low commissions. Two bettors agree to play, or lay, a certain horse in a particular race after one has set the win odds to win. The loser pays nothing; the winner as much as 5 percent, or lower based on high volume.
Supporters believe that the exchanges could benefit racing by expanding the menu of available bets that attract new players to the sport. On its face, a horse-vs.-horse wager is easier for new bettors to understand while savvy players appreciate the lower takeout rate.
Whether it goes the exchange route and/or gets permission to conduct online sports betting, it is clear that New Jersey has bought into the model that tracks market the sport and gambling while the money comes from a distribution network that includes phone betting, state sanctioned simulcast venues and Internet wagering. Those monies will allow the state to fund the racetracks.
In the main, quality has not been as good as was originally projected. Despite huge purses being offered in the allowance ranks and racing dates that were halved, the horse shortage created by the downturn in the yearling market the past two years has hurt the sport’s higher classes nationwide.
Monmouth and Belmont Park have struggled to put on a top class show on a consistent basis. What’s in store at the upcoming prestige meets of Saratoga and Del Mar at this juncture is anyone’s guess.
Early July marks the beginning of racing’s busiest period. Controlling the supply side has helped Monmouth thus far and they are about to get into the prime portion of their meet.
The money they’ve saved on high class allowance races now can be used to lure better horses, such as Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra who will race at Monmouth next Saturday instead of the Grade 1 Ruffian in Saratoga the following weekend.
Monmouth jacked up the purse of the ungraded Lady’s Secret by $250,000 and lengthened the distance to nine furlongs. Unlike Indiana Downs, you can bet you’ll find out just how many more people a Horse of the Year champion is worth.
01 Jul 2010 at 08:52 pm | #
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02 Jul 2010 at 02:32 am | #
Nihilator, thanks for the profanity laced rant. Not sure you should be talking about “class”.
02 Jul 2010 at 03:01 am | #
Sarnataro, I’ve just sent an e mail to my webmaster. The problem with be addressed ASAP.
02 Jul 2010 at 04:19 am | #
For the record, Indiana downs does not make attendance figures available.
___________________________
This game needs transparency. Not another track hiding behind weak attendance figures and on-track handle numbers.
While Indiana Downs has presented fuller fields, and business is on the upswing, what are they doing to capitalize for the long-term? Are they planning to bolster their open stakes program?
Blessed with slots revenue, why not lay claim to the “lowest takeout in the land” and garner national interest in their horse racing product?
Racetracks with slots on the premises of the racetracks must invest in the future of horse racing product before the novelty of localized slots wears off; and before gaming saturation sets in around the country.
BTW: The date of The Lady’s Secret Stakes is Saturday, July 24th.
02 Jul 2010 at 04:30 am | #
Sky,
There should bea takeout rider for any track wishing to open a racino, that a percentage of the slots win must go to reduce takeout. It’s in their best interests!!
In terms of attendance figures, that only helps the track if they “bank” customers to artifically inflate their big days.
Transparency, what a concept!
02 Jul 2010 at 04:33 am | #
The reason why Indiana Downs does not disclose attendance figures is that there is free admissiton into the facility. There are no turnstiles since you are free to come and go into the casino and racetrack.
02 Jul 2010 at 04:44 am | #
Exchange betting. Why don’t you just issue invitations to criminals to fix a race without getting caught.
Stop it. Making a horse lose a race or run poorly is very easy.
02 Jul 2010 at 07:05 am | #
Dick, as does Saratoga Gaming & Raceway, maybe with the exception of big days drawing unusually large crowds, all racinos should give the gate away.
Ace, guess you don’t have any confidence in racing’s officials. I say let it happen once. We’ve bet on losers before and will again. But if you catch the culprit and ban him for a year with a serious fine, that could boost integrity clear across the board.
Thanks guys,
JP
02 Jul 2010 at 09:02 am | #
The record-breaking day of wagering on Wednesday was surely aided by the fact that most major tracks have virtually given up racing on that day of the week, thus Indiana Downs had minimal competition in the simulcast market. If they ran the same program on a Saturday, I could name at least 8-10 tracks that would have out-handled them.
02 Jul 2010 at 09:46 am | #
Not exactly the Rosetta Stone there, although Wednesday is busier than Monday and Tuesday most weeks, which also doesn’t address the live handle figures..
What I don’t understand sometimes is a rush to find the negatives. And it’s supposed to be the media that needs fixing first, yes?
02 Jul 2010 at 11:55 am | #
To all JJ detractors. My owner pays the bills, feeds me and treats me like a queeen. Don’t like it, buy yourself a thoroughbred. I’m running at the Jersey shore where they are trying something new for the better of the game. I applaud them for that and I hope to put on a show!
02 Jul 2010 at 01:35 pm | #
I don’t find explaining why something might have occurred to be negative. But it’s stories like this that fuel Kentucky track operators’ propoganda about losing ground to Indiana when they (including Ellis and Turfway) consistently out-handle the two Indiana tracks by a large margin when they run the same days. How long Indiana will be willing to subsidize racing to the extent they do with slot revenue remains to be seen.
02 Jul 2010 at 05:07 pm | #
John- the low per capita @ Mth being due to introducing new fans is complete and utter spin at best, BS at worst. The per capitas are the same as last year even in the good weather:
7/11/09 Att/ontrack handle 10,954/$752k
7/18/09 8,911/$596k
7/25 8,160/560k
8/8 8,717/$592k
etc
03 Jul 2010 at 04:44 am | #
For all this hype of the Monmouth meet working. You do realize that Belmont park consistently out handles monmouth ever day that they go head to head? That’s with monmouth giving out roughly double the purses. Which track looks like a success-the one that gives out $400k a day and does 11-12 million in handle or the one that gives out $750k and does just over 9 million?
03 Jul 2010 at 06:22 am | #
Saying that Indiana Downs is ‘thriving’, based upon one day is a bit of an overstatement. For the millions more spent on purses for the 2010 meet, overall handle is behind where it was in 2009. There have been five less races carded in 2010 versus 2009 and those races will not account for a couple million less in overall handle.
03 Jul 2010 at 05:42 pm | #
OK, let’s try this.
The post did not compare Indiana to Kentucky, or vice versa. And gaming in neighbroring states and the riverboats have hurt Churchill.
The point of the piece is that a quality program, even on a week night in Shelbyville, Indiana, is capable of attracting sizable seven-figure handle.
Or, quality (horses) equal quantity (dollars).
03 Jul 2010 at 08:31 pm | #
When I said ‘stories like this’ I wasn’t referring to your column but to the press release Indiana Downs sent out regarding their record-breaking day.
“And gaming in neighboring states and the riverboats have hurt Churchill.”
True, but no Kentucky track is losing the pari-mutuel war with Indiana. In fact, they continue to pound them in that regard. That may seem irrelevant, but only if one thinks slots subsidies in their present form will last forever.
“The point of the piece is that a quality program, even on a week night in Shelbyville, Indiana, is capable of attracting sizable seven-figure handle.”
But there’s more to them generating a seven-figure handle than simply putting on a high quality program. They could have run the exact same races on a Saturday and probably generated only half the handle. It really isn’t just about quality but also what you’re up against (or not up against) in the simulcast market.
I’d take a more positive spin on this if I knew the track was capable of generating this kind of handle no matter what day of the week they ran this exact card, but that’s not the case and they know it. According to the DRF charts, less than $50,000 of the handle (2%) was generated on-track. That percentage could have been higher if they ran it on Saturday, but that would have meant sacrificing much of that crucial off-track handle. That’s why they programmed it for Wednesday.
05 Jul 2010 at 04:40 am | #
Its not so much what you do in this business as what others fail to do. Indiana Downs and Monmouth have obviously capitalized off what have become deficient products elsewhere. Churchill’s overall quality and quantity has been dreadful, California rarely has single race you can get your teeth in, Calder runs the same race every 11 days, horses venturing out of the Chicago circuit can’t compete anywhere. If you look at industry figs just released the obvious conclusion is players bet on product having the best potential for a return. Put another way, business shifts toward the flavor of the day but the pie is still shrinking at an alarming rate.