Texas Once Again Allows Simulcasting Signal Exports

On the back of Tuesday's decision in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denying a motion by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority for that court to vacate its recent opinion that the law is unconstitutional, the Texas Racing Commission (TXRC) has reopened the door for Texas tracks to beam their signals out-of-state, with Sam Houston set to begin this Friday.

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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Problems Persist with Gmax Timing System

Despite a press release in late August from Equibase in which the company announced it would be conducting an “extensive analysis” of its Gmax timing system, the technology has continued to produce a number of inaccurate times at the racetracks it services.

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. 

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Help Wanted: Penn Gaming Seeking Directors Of Racing For Mahoning, The Meadows

Penn National Gaming, Inc., the largest operator of pari-mutuel racetracks in North America, is currently seeking applications for Director of Racing positions at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown, Ohio and The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, PA.

“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

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Zia Park Fall Meeting In Question Due To Pandemic’s Shutdown Of Casinos

Due to the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the fall meet at Zia Park, scheduled to run 54 days beginning Sept. 21 and running through Dec. 22, is uncertain.

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.

The NMHA hosted an open Zoom video conference on August 10, with more than 50 people in virtual attendance. This included horsemen and representatives from NMHA and other New Mexico racetracks.

“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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