The topic “Land For Sale. How Will Race Track Closures Impact the Industry's Long-Term Sustainability?” elicited some of the commonly debated plights facing the industry, such as the decline of the foal crop, the fierce competition for the thinning horse (and horse owner) population, how to shore up field sizes, and the emergence of so-called “super” trainers and multiple-owner partnerships.

The panelists largely agreed those practices are consolidating the remaining equine assets into the hands of too few entities, but each speaker had a slightly different take on how to best deal with those woes.

Bill Nader, the president and chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), didn't shy from rhetorically asking what he termed as “the hard question” about racing in the state that he represents. California is facing outsized upheaval because of the planned 2024 closure of Golden Gate Fields, right on the heels of a 10-year span that also saw top in-state tracks Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows slide off the Thoroughbred grid.

“What's the best path forward, and can California support two circuits?” Nader postulated before following up with the TOC's perspective.

“We know we have the [Northern] fairs, that's a given,” Nader said. “And we have Southern California. But can we support two circuits, knowing what we know?” in terms of the above-referenced downward trends.

Nader continued: “One avenue would be to look at something new [as a flagship track] in the north. [Plus] there is no alternative [revenue stream from gaming to fund purses], which makes it really hard, because we're doing it the old-fashioned way, pari-mutuel wagering only, sort of one arm tied behind your back…

“If there's something in the north that we think is viable and can really form a good business case, that would be option one. If not, then we have to redirect to suitable opportunities in the south, and make use of our assets at our racetracks at not only Del Mar and Santa Anita, but also Los Alamitos.

“If the foal crop can rebound, and we can get some positive momentum, maybe we can stay a little bit close to even” in terms of nationwide track closures, Nader said.

“It's really important that California stay strong, that we keep supporting [it],” Nader said. “Our owners are big players at the Keeneland sale and many of the major yearling sales. [So] in terms of understanding the worth and the value of what everybody brings, less racing may not be the worst thing if we can improve the product and make it better for the people who bet on the races, because that triggers the handle, and that drives the engine.”

Nader explained that for Californians, it can be difficult to see other iconic, nationally important  tracks, like Belmont Park and Keeneland, planning substantial long-term facility upgrades while grand places like Santa Anita and Del Mar are more focused on the year-to-year survival of their underlying state circuit.

“That's great that they're leveraging that [financial] advantage to make their venues better, no problem with that,” Nader said. “But I want everybody to be reminded how important California is. California doesn't have those [secondary revenue] advantages…. In terms of expectation management, we're okay, but we still want to escalate to the next level…. I think for the rest of the country, everybody should recognize [how] important California is to the rest of the country: Racing, breeding, history, tradition.”

Smaller tracks weren't left out of the discussion. Phil Ziegler, the president of Emerald Downs in Washington, made the observation that all too often the big-name track closures get the headlines, while it is often the disappearance of the smaller venues, like county fair race meets, that quietly erode the sport from the bottom up.

Chris McErlean, the vice president of racing for Penn Entertainment, Inc., whose Thoroughbred track holdings include Penn National in Pennsylvania, spoke candidly about how well-intended racing executives in Penn's home region of the mid-Atlantic unintentionally contribute to the very problems they're trying to fix.

This includes, McErlean said, giving big-outfit trainers “unlimited” stall allotments or writing so many conditions that races either become hard to fill or go with too few entries to be appealing to bettors.

“We do that out of convenience, [and] that's kind of self-perpetuating. That's kind of what works, but it's probably not the right thing to do,” McErlean said.

McErlean talked about how difficult it can be for a racing executive to deny alleged “super” trainers stall space and dominance across race conditions knowing that if they clamp down, that trainer will just move on to the next track down the road that will be more accommodating.

“I think we've hurt ourselves that way, and it just becomes more difficult to bring that genie back into the bottle once you let it go,” McErlean said.

“I've been involved in the mid-Atlantic for maybe 25, 30 years,” McErlean  continued. “Tracks always work together very well there. But every year the discussion is, 'Let's coordinate race dates' or 'We need to coordinate race dates, it makes sense.' And it never happens. So, yeah, we're our own worst enemies.

“But at the end of the day, we run our individual businesses. We're not a league,” McErlean said. “We compete against each other [and] it's difficult to do those changes [because] we can step out and make the right choices, and then everybody else keeps doing what they're doing, and then we end up being the net loser. People want to cooperate. It's just very difficult to be able to actually pull the trigger…. In theory it sounds good. In practice, it's just much more difficult to execute.”

Craig Fravel, the executive vice chairman of 1/ST Racing and Gaming, whose portfolio of tracks includes Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, and the to-be-closed Golden Gate, underscored a focus-on-owners mantra.

“We do have to make sure that owners are sustained in a more profound manner, that they're engaged, and that they have, you know, a fighting chance to make some money,” Fravel said. “It's a game of hope. We don't want to fool them into thinking that this is a [can't-miss] investment in Microsoft in 1978. But we do want to give them hope, and we want to make sure they're well-treated…

“If we're going to try to change things, we're going to have to try things,” Fravel said. “We're going to have to do things that are new and different and sometimes make us uncomfortable.”

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“That's the original track rail that's been in there since the track opened,” Chris McErlean, the vice president of racing for PENN Entertainment, said during Tuesday's Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission meeting. “We are going to a new PVC breakaway type rail that is in use at a couple racetracks right now, and it should be better from a safety standpoint and a maintenance standpoint.”

Penn National started a scheduled break after the Sept. 22 program. Live Racing resumes Oct. 25.

“That should take us a little less than two weeks to get installed,” McErlean said. “We're working around training. We've adjusted training hours slightly to accommodate that. But it should be up and fully installed by the middle of October.”

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Through an exclusive license, the agreement between Penn National's parent company PENN Entertainment and BetMakers facilitates the delivery of content for fixed odds betting from Hollywood Casino and anticipates the addition of other PENN Entertainment racetracks in the coming months pending required horsemen and racing commission approvals.

“We are very happy to work with BetMakers to offer New Jersey's racing fans an opportunity to bet fixed odds on Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course,” said Chris McErlean, Vice President of Racing for PENN Entertainment. “We are interested in the reaction to our product in the New Jersey fixed odds wagering marketplace and hope that it will provide positive returns for not only Penn National but the wider racing industry.”

With the addition of the Penn National content, New Jersey bettors now have the opportunity to place fixed odds wagers on racing from 16 racetracks across the USA, Canada, the Caribbean and South America.

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“I was excited when I got the call to join the PENN Entertainment team and head up their Texas operations,” Pettigrew said. “When I was previously at Sam Houston, I was able to grow handle and attendance, while educating businesses and a newer fan base about the fun, excitement, and economic impact of horse racing in Texas. I'm hoping to bring many of those same principles back and work with our talented management teams to grow our racing businesses in the Lone Star state,” he added.

Dwight Berube served as Vice President and General Manager of the property and its subsidiaries since 2017 and will be retiring in early June. Pettigrew will officially join PENN Entertainment on Jun. 5, pending customary regulatory approvals.

“I'm thrilled to have Bryan leading our Texas racing properties,” Christopher McErlean, Vice President of Racing for PENN Entertainment, said. “Horse racing in Texas has plenty of challenges but Bryan has a strong understanding of the horse racing business with his previous high-profile marketing and sponsorship roles within the industry and has maintained strong connections to many Texas racing stakeholders. He also brings a wide array of experience from outside of racing in professional sports management and special events which should positively impact our properties.

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Last year, the TXRC argued that it was statutorily barred from joining HISA, and because the enabling federal legislation gave the HISA Authority regulatory jurisdiction over the interstate simulcasting of races, the commission prohibited Texan tracks from exporting their signals.

“I called the Sam Houston Park general manager this morning and asked him to provide me an export request, and I've already approved them,” said TXRC executive director Amy Cook, who also wrote in a memo Wednesday to licensees that the Fifth Circuit's decision finding the law “facially unconstitutional” meant it has no effect on the State of Texas.

Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn Entertainment, Sam Houston's parent company, confirmed that the simulcast signal will be beamed to its out-of-state partners when racing resumes this Friday. Sam Houston's current season began on Jan. 6 and ends Apr. 8.

“We have multiple racetracks, so, our contracts cover all our tracks. Everybody was ready to go as soon as there was some change in the status,” said McErlean. “It's literally the flick of a switch to get it going. We welcome the change. Sam Houston's a good wintertime meet on the schedule for a lot of people, and we're glad people will be able to see it live to bet on.”

When asked to comment on the TXRC's actions, HISA spokesperson Mandy Minger wrote in an email: “The Fifth Circuit's decision concerns only the prior version of HISA, before Congress amended it to remedy the constitutional concern the Fifth Circuit identified. No court has expressed any constitutional concern about, let alone enjoined, the current version of HISA now in effect. We look forward to working with the Texas Racing Commission and Texas racetracks should they resume operations falling within HISA's jurisdiction.”

Early last year, the State of Texas and the TXRC joined as intervener plaintiffs on one of the cases before the Fifth Circuit, led by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA).

On Jan. 3, the HISA Authority asked for the Fifth Circuit's Nov. 18, 2022, anti-constitutionality order to be vacated based on a federal rewrite of the HISA law in December.

On Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit panel of judges denied this motion and also shot down separate motions for a rehearing of the case made by both the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

After ruling on those two motions, the Fifth Circuit then issued a mandate that stated, “It is ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the District Court is reversed and remanded to the District Court for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion of this Court.”

The Fifth Circuit encompasses the states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Cook explained that her policy decision last year to prohibit the export of simulcast signals from the state's tracks was made “hoping for the legal outcome that HISA has no legal jurisdiction in our state.

“We have avoided HISA jurisdiction because we didn't think that regulatory scheme was constitutional as a policy decision, and now we've avoided it in a legal decision as well,” Cook added. “We were certain that we were going to prevail, but I needed to provide certainty.”

Cook wrote in a memo Wednesday to licensees that, “All horseraces in Texas will continue to be conducted in accordance with the Texas Racing Act and the Texas Rules of Racing.”

This means that Texan racetracks continue to operate in a similar position to those in West Virginia and Louisiana, in that they are bound under the state's regulations and not HISA's safety regulations that went into effect in July last year.

With no simulcast signals beamed out of the state for months, concerns have understandably surrounded the impact on purses from a massive drop in handle.

In early January, the Daily Racing Form reported total wagering had dropped from $11.75 million on six days of live racing in 2022 to $1.04 million on seven days of live racing in 2023. The average per-race handle reportedly declined 92.3%.

The TDN's Bill Finley reported that Saturday's handle at Sam Houston for the Houston Racing Festival was $488,385. Last year, when the races were run on a Sunday, the handle was $5,698,052–a decline of 91.4%.

Cook was unable to provide specific figures as to the numerical hit on the state's purse account, but she played down the impact by saying that out-of-state simulcasting at Texas tracks accounts for roughly 15% of the total purses, the latter of which is bolstered by state subsidies and an increased percentage of on-track handle.

“It's not that we don't think [HISA] has an admirable goal, it's the way they're going after the goal,” said Cook, raising alternative uniform regulatory approaches to HISA, like a “cooperative agreement” model.

“It's not personal,” Cook added. “I told Lisa [Lazarus, HISA CEO] that when she came to Texas. I invited her. She came June 8. I drove her round in my pickup truck, and I said, 'It's not personal but you have a problem. You don't have a sustainable resource model here.'”

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The TDN has found recent examples from Del Mar, Tampa Bay Downs and Penn National that show there were problems with the Gmax timing of the races. Gmax, which is operated in the U.S. by Equibase, relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) to record times, as well as providing additional information such as the running order of a race.

Equibase issued the press release after the TDN and other media outlets reported on a series of problems with the timing system since it was first introduced to American racing in 2018 and subsequently suffered a number of timing issues during this year’s Del Mar summer meet. Starting with the Aug. 2 card, Del Mar took the unusual step of relying not on Gmax, but on hand times, for all its grass races through the remainder of the meet.

The more recent problems were particularly pronounced during the early days of the meet at Tampa Bay Downs, where the Gmax system is being used for the first time. The chart for the first race on opening day, Nov. 25, notes that the race was hand-timed. During the running of the first three races of the day, no fractional or final times were posted on the toteboard as the races were being run.

After an uneventful day Nov. 27, the second day of the Tampa meet, there were several problems Nov. 28. The charts of five of the 10 races on the card noted that the races were hand-timed. In some of the races, no times were posted on the toteboard or through the simulcast feed while the races were being run. In others, the times listed were clearly incorrect. In the fifth race, the opening quarter time was posted as 33.81. In the sixth race, after the horses crossed the wire a time of 1:29.94 was listed for the quarter-time. In the seventh, the quarter-time was posted as 1:04.39 and the final time for the six furlong race went up as 1:10.71. In the official race chart, the running time is listed as 1:11.70, nearly a full second off the Gmax time originally posted on the toteboard.

Tampa Bay Downs President Pete Berube told the TDN that some of the problems with the posting of inaccurate fractional and final times were the result of errors being made by an outside vendor contracted to handle Tampa’s television graphics package. Berube added that he had not lost faith in the Gmax system.

“I am very confident with the times,” he said. “I know there has been a lot of talk about timings and things like that from the speed figure guys and I certainly appreciate that. But I am very pleased that Equibase is doing the video control with the timing to make sure we are putting out correct times because I know how important they are to the bettors.”

Over the Aug. 1-2 weekend, the original times of seven races at Del Mar were updated in the final chart. The altered times came in both turf and dirt races and the differences were as small as 0.07 seconds and as big as 1.19 seconds. Addressing the problems after the meet concluded, Del Mar officials announced that they had re-surveyed the turf course to “enhance timing and tracking accuracy with the state-of-the-art GPS system.” There was no mention of correcting problems with the timing for dirt races.

Speaking to the California Horse Racing Board in September, Del Mar President Josh Rubinstein told the regulators that the track would not have to rely on hand timing for the Bing Crosby meet because problems with the Gmax system had been corrected.

But the official charts for five races run at the Bing Crosby meet list that they were hand-timed. Two of the races were run on the dirt and three were turf races. Asked by the TDN to address the five hand-timed races, Rubinstein pointed to extenuating circumstances that led to the problems. Some of the problems, Rubinstein said, involved miscalculating how far the run-up distance prior to the start was and how far out the rails were on the turf course.

There were a handful of additional problems during the meet. Over the three-day span beginning Nov. 20, there were at least four races where Gmax times that went up on the toteboard while the race were being run were changed in the final chart.

Equibase President and COO Jason Wilson said there were issues with “probably 10 races” at the Del Mar fall meet.

Despite the problems with Gmax, Rubinstein said he remains a fan of the system.

“Del Mar continues to believe in the platform and GPS technology for timing and tracking” he wrote in an e-mail  “We’re working with Gmax and Equibase to provide the most accurate information possible.”

During November, there were numerous occasions at Penn National where the Gmax time was later corrected, with an adjusted time going into the official charts. On the night of Nov. 13 alone, the were seven races in which the final Gmax time was adjusted before going into the official chart.

Chris McErlean, the vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, referred Gmax questions to Wilson.

Among the first to discover that there were problems with Gmax, the team that puts together the Beyer figures stopped using the Gmax times when making their numbers. Instead, they used a computer program that, they said, allows them to get accurate times by watching the replays. Wilson said that Equibase is now relying on a similar video timing program whenever it comes to their attention that a Gmax time may be inaccurate. By doing so, it appears that Equibase has been able to catch most of the mistakes and correct them before they become a permanent part of the charts and a horse’s past performance lines. But Wilson admitted that it would be preferable for there to be fewer mistakes in the first place.

“We use video timing as a way to check for races where there needs to be some investigation as to whether a time is good or not,” he said. “We will go in and review those races and make changes as we need to. People have probably seen some of that. I think we need to work on how we communicate those changes to people. A lot of this is growing pains and, unfortunately, it has been a bit more painful than we thought it was going to be. We are getting there. Obviously, video timing every single race is not, in the long term, sustainable. It’s just not a good use of resources.”

Gmax was developed by the British company Total Performance Data. In an Oct. 11, 2018, press release, Equibase first announced its partnership with Total Performance Data and that Gmax had been installed at Woodbine, Golden Gate Fields, Laurel and Pimlico. Gmax was being touted as an efficient and inexpensive timing system that could not only time races but provide tracks with such things as automated charts and dynamic video graphics. The problems began at the outset. Theracingbiz.com website reported that during a four-month period at Laurel beginning in Feb. 2019, 10 track records were set at Laurel and that it was later found that in all 10 cases the Gmax time was faster than the time recorded by traditional timing methods.

Wilson said that Equibase realized early on that an effort was needed to continually improve the system.

“When we went into this project, we didn’t necessarily look at it that we were buying something off the shelf, had to install it and that was that,” he said. “We definitely looked at it from a standpoint of how can we make the overall environment better and bring in more research and development. It’s not just times. It is information in general. How do we improve on that and make it better for everybody?”

That 21 months have passed since the first signs of problems at Laurel and Gmax is still creating a number of inaccurately timed races has raised questions as to whether or not Gmax will ever work properly and whether or not GPS is a good means of measuring time. In the meantime, other sports where timing is part of the equation have made great strides in their timing methods. The times for Olympic events are now so accurate that races can be measured at one-millionth of a second. Gmax times have been known to be off by as much as a full second.

Wilson said that tests have shown that Gmax is getting better all the time and he listed a number of steps Equibase has taken to improve the technology. Wilson acknowledges that the goal should be for the Gmax times to be so reliable and so accurate that they no longer come under question. He said he was confident that day would come.

“We are in the business of continuous improvement,” he said. “We don’t want to have to check the times with video timing going forward. We want to be to the point where we don’t have to go and check those times because we are confident they are accurate to, say, a tenth of a second 99% of the time.”

Editor’s note: Barry Weisbord, the founder and former publisher of the TDN, is the Chairman of Trakus, a competing timing and tracking system. 

The post Problems Persist with Gmax Timing System appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“With the announced retirement of current Vice President of Racing Mark Loewe from our Mahoning Valley and Meadows operations we are now looking at Director of Racing positions at those individual properties, said Chris McErlean, Vice President of Racing for Penn National Gaming, Inc.  “We are seeking individuals who can bring a strong racing background while combining exceptional leadership and business skills in overseeing the entire racing and wagering operations at those respective locations.”

“I do want to thank Mark for his outstanding contributions to the Penn Gaming racing team since coming on board in 2008 and being a leader at seven different racetracks during that time,” added McErlean.

Mahoning Valley Race Course is a thoroughbred racing facility offering 100 days of live racing, stabling for nearly 1,000 horses and conducts year-round simulcasting.  The facility commenced operations in 2014 and has quickly established an enviable niche in the Ohio and regional racing circuit as well as the national simulcast marketplace.

The Meadows is one of North America's premier harness racetracks with nearly 190 live harness race dates conducted year-round.  The five-eighths mile track has a barn area for nearly 800 horses and is home to one of the top three-year-old pacing events in the sport, “The Adios,” conducted each summer.  The Meadows also offers year-round simulcast wagering.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply for these positions at the following links:

Director of Racing Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course

https://careers-pngaming.icims.com/jobs/76273/director-of-racing/job

Director of Racing Meadows Racetrack and Casino

https://careers-pngaming.icims.com/jobs/76397/director-of-racing/job

The post Help Wanted: Penn Gaming Seeking Directors Of Racing For Mahoning, The Meadows appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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New Mexico Horsemen's Association Executive Director Richard Erhard met via telecom with Chris McErlean, Vice President of racing at Penn National, and Bill Belcher, the general manager of Zia Park, on August 6 to discuss the status of the upcoming meet.

During the meeting, the main points established included that Penn National will continue to wait for confirmation from the New Mexico Governor's office stating that racetrack casinos will be allowed to open prior to making a final decision to hold a race meet.

Second, after that confirmation is made, it will take Zia Park five weeks of preparation to open, with racing to begin on the sixth week.

Given this timeline, Penn National does not see it as being advantageous for anyone to open Zia Park for a 2020 meet if confirmation to open casinos does not come until September 30 or later.

“It was a very productive meeting, as far as I'm concerned,” Erhard said. “We're all in this together, and that's why I reached out to all stakeholders.”

Despite their casinos being closed, both Ruidoso Downs and The Downs at Albuquerque have opened their race meets under strict health guidelines.

Ruidoso opened its meet on May 22 and will run through Labor Day. It offers live viewing and wagering of the races, as well as a local drive-through betting service.

The Downs at Albuquerque opened its delayed meet on August 8, and will run through September 20. It is also scheduled to host the Bank of America Challenge Championships on October 24.

New Mexico House of Representatives member Candy Spence Ezzell is a horseman with a close understanding of racing in the state.

“First off, I have to applaud Ruidoso Downs, its owners and management, for going up and promoting our industry, giving the horses the opportunity to race,” she said. “They have gone above and beyond to accommodate the horsemen.”

As far as Zia Park goes, she said, there are contracts in place and if they refused to run dates, they could potentially be violating state statutes.

Horse racing is an important industry in New Mexico, she says, as it is the third largest in the state. Racing creates significant amounts of jobs within the industry itself, as well as being a high tourism driver when people attend the races, funding the hospitality, food and travel industries.

“The impact of COVID-19 on racing in New Mexico has just been disastrous, and I think everybody is realizing we're in this together and we need to work on this together,” Erhard said. “If we stay in silos and don't work with each other, I don't have much hope. If we work together and everyone's up front and put everything on the table, I think we can come up with a solution.”

The shut down has been extremely difficult for the racetracks, as well as horsemen, with a loss of revenue from the casinos and from customers. If Zia and Sunland casinos were to stay shuttered, it would also directly affect Ruidoso, as they have a lease agreement in place for slot machines that result in Ruidoso getting purse and track revenue generation through the lease agreements.

Jeff True, general manager at Ruidoso Downs and a member of the AQHA Racing Council, says that while racetracks are feeling it, the impact on horsemen is a big concern.

“We're going to finish our meet Labor Day weekend, as bad as it was revenue wise, and kind of shut down for the winter. Zia Park not opening means the horses that would normally go from here to Zia are not going to be able to do that; they're not going to have a place to go. So the impact on Ruidoso is less than it is on the horsemen.”

There are discussions ongoing about potential solutions, including moving race dates. True said that while Ruidoso is open to discussion, there is a great deal of work, including finding funding, that would need to be done to make that happen.

“We need everyone's input, we need everyone's brain power, and we need to find some solutions,” Erhard said. “We don't have a lot of time to fool around.

“Bottom line is, we want to race,” he added. “Horsemen need to race. We need a place to continue training. We need a place to go with our stock. This can't just stop.”

This story originally appeared on the American Quarter Horse Association website, and was reprinted by the Paulick Report with permission.

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