The Biz | Horse Racing Free Tips

Lone Star Concludes Thoroughbred Meet With Record Increase In Average Daily Handle

Lone Star Park concluded its 24th Thoroughbred Racing Season on Wednesday, August 12 with a record $2.1 Million in average daily handle from off track sources. The previous high mark was in 2002 when the average was just over $2 Million per day. The meet saw a record increase of 131% in average daily all-source handle from 2019.

Overall this season marked the highest amount handled per day since 2004, the same year Lone Star Park hosted the Breeders' Cup, with an average daily all-source handle of just over $2.2 Million.

“With the success of this season behind us, we are eager to keep the momentum going into next year and feel the future is bright for horse racing at Lone Star Park and in Texas,” said Kent Slabotsky, Vice President of Operations.

Total Purses paid increased by $95,000 per day or 34% as part of House Bill 2463 from $166,000 per day up to $261,000 per day. This increase in purses led to an increase in field size by over 20%.

Highlights of the season included witnessing jockey Stewart Elliott, famed rider of Smarty Jones, who just missed the Triple Crown of 2004, winning his career 5,000th race here.

Meet leaders were Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen who won 50 races worth $1,463,385 during the season. As Lone Star Park's all-time leading trainer, this was his 13th season leading title here at the Grand Prairie track.

Jockey Ramon A. Vazquez was the top among the jockeys with 58 wins totaling $1,343,946 in purse money. This was his first ever season riding at Lone Star Park.

Mike Sisk of M and M Racing was top owner of the meet. His stable scored 29 wins worth a total of $587,235 in earnings.

Lone Star Park's 2020 Quarter Horse Season opens Friday, September 4 and runs through Saturday, November 28.

The post Lone Star Concludes Thoroughbred Meet With Record Increase In Average Daily Handle appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

‘We Cannot Let Our Guard Down’: BEST To Reemphasize Proper Use Of PPE At Saratoga

The Backstretch Employee Service Team (BEST) will team up with the Northeast New York Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (NENY-COSH) on Aug. 24-25 to provide one-on-one demonstrations on the proper use of personal protective equipment to the essential workers of the backstretch at Saratoga Race Course. The demonstrations will re-emphasize the continued best practices that have been in place at the racetrack since early March. Each worker in attendance will receive a PPE kit including a mask with filtering respirator, gloves, and hand sanitizer. The project was made possible with the help of a grant from the Hispanics in Philanthropy Essential Fund.

PPE has been supplied, free of charge, to the horsemen and the workers since the start of the pandemic. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) and New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Assocation (NYTHA) teamed up earlier this month to distribute 25,000 masks at Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park, bringing the total number of masks and gloves donated to the backstretch community to more than 200,000.

This initiative is the most recent in the ongoing effort to protect the workers from Covid-19. BEST has been working with the NYRA, NYTHA, and the New York division of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America since early March to address the issues created by the pandemic. The organizations formed a Task Force Mar. 10 and created the “Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Plan,” developing policies regarding testing, medical care, quarantine and the mandatory use of PPE, as well as setting up a communication network with the horsemen and the workers, and organizing distribution of PPE, medical supplies, food, and clothing for those in need.

“Since the start, we have been working hard to make sure the workers have everything they need, and this is an ongoing and collective effort,” BEST Executive Director Paul Ruchames said. “We are thrilled that, as of today, we have no active positives in our backstretch community. But we will continue to be vigilant. A key component in keeping the backstretch workers safe is education. NENY-COSH will review the facts about PPE with our workers – how to wear it, how to store, when to discard it.”

The Task Force expanded its Plan and exceeded New York State requirements when Saratoga Race Course opened in July, mandating that everyone working at the upstate track produce a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed on the grounds. This policy includes jockeys, valets, NYRA employees, trainers and their staff, outside vendors, and media. As is the policy at Belmont Park, everyone licensed and approved to be on the property are required to wear a mask, practice social distancing and submit to a daily temperature check.

Signs in English and Spanish are posted across the backstretch as a daily reminder to follow these protocols, and there is a hotline to call should anyone have concerns about Covid-19.

As a result of this diligence, there are currently zero positive cases of Covid-19 at Saratoga Race Course and downstate at Belmont Park.

“NYTHA is committed to improving the lives of the workforce on the backstretch, and our mission has never been more focused than during the fight against Covid-19,” NYTHA President Joe Appelbaum said. “We want to thank NENY-COSH for providing this valuable service to the workers, and the Gaming Commission, NYRA, BEST, and the Chaplaincy for their collaboration during difficult times. We are proud of the hard work and dedication that have gone into this effort, and of our horsemen and workers for their willingness to cooperate and comply.”

Added Ruchames, “Thanks to the partnership with NYRA and NYTHA and the guidance of the New York State Gaming Commission and the Governor's Office, we have been able to contain Covid-19 at our racetracks. But we cannot let our guard down.”

The post ‘We Cannot Let Our Guard Down’: BEST To Reemphasize Proper Use Of PPE At Saratoga appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Thoroughbred Idea Foundation: Horsemen Deserve Fair Compensation

Horsemen should be properly compensated for content. A major source of funding for the sport and its stakeholders, is in jeopardy.

Horsemen have been pawns in the operation of racing for decades, not receiving their fair share of compensation for the content that their horses provide. The effects of the global pandemic have only made this clearer. Through the first six months of 2020, wagering on American races is down nearly 11 percent. Purses, however, are down 40 percent.

When the doors to casinos closed, and racing was put on hold, horsemen suffered. The owners and operators of advanced deposit wagering outlets like TwinSpires and Xpressbet did not. In fact, profits from Churchill Downs Incorporated's online wagering business rose 39 percent in Q2 2020 from the previous year despite not hosting its flagship event!

These two entities, among other ADWs, were pressed into service like never before because of the pandemic's impact which effectively closed on-track betting. While undoubtedly helpful, the customers forced to switch online may never return to betting through the sport's most lucrative channels – on-track wagering. This will hasten the imbalance in contributions to purses.

As most horsemen realize, online, out-of-state bets on racing are often the least valuable to purses. Now, ADW betting is the vast majority of wagering and unlikely to change soon. Even worse, the ADWs continue to retain an outsized portion of the commissions from wagering takeout. Without racing, the ADWs have little to offer customers. They should not take advantage of the horsemen who enable their very existence.

In its latest publication (click the link to read more), the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) calls on horsemen, and their representative groups, to begin asking critical questions about the composition of wagering on its races, increasing attentiveness to approvals of wagering contracts and to better understand the delicate balance needed to continue sustaining racing purses. Racing operators act purely from a position of self-interest.

Horsepeople need to start doing the same.

The time to fix the broken model is now.

Roughly 65 percent of all wagering on racing in Q2 2020 came from the major ADWs, like TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet and NYRA Bets. So if doors were closed to tracks, where did the rest originate?

TIF estimates that approximately one-third of all wagering on American racing comes from entities we characterize as “high-volume betting shops,” or HVBS, which are the equivalent of private, high-end wagering platforms which do not need separate ADWs. As HVBS wagering increases, a series of disadvantages are created, increasing costs on all other bettors, and having the effect of reducing participation from, or outright eliminating, non-HVBS players.

The impact for all racing stakeholders, particularly horsemen, will be felt over time because HVBS players (which number in the dozens) are often the least profitable towards purses. HVBS wagering has increased over time, from only 8 percent of U.S. betting in 2003 to the estimated 30 to 35 percent now. When you adjust for inflation, racing's least valuable customers (relative to their contribution to purses) have increased by 114 percent in the last 16 years.

Meanwhile, participation from racing's most valuable customers – recreational players wagering under $100,000 annually – is declining at alarming rates. Make no mistake – our sport needs ALL of its customers, both from HVBS and non-HVBS sources. TIF estimates that all non-HVBS play has declined by a staggering 63 percent, adjusted for inflation, since 2003.

The most valuable source of prize money has dropped by a significant amount while the least valuable source has increased substantially.

This situation threatens purse levels in the intermediate and long-term across all racing jurisdictions, but particularly in light of the evolution of competitive wagering products – legal sports betting, daily fantasy sports and the growth of online casinos, which do not contribute revenue to purses even if the online license is granted to a track operator.

As racing faces declining contributions from casino-related revenues towards purses, or worse – loses all casino-based contributions to purses – along with a steady rise in wagering competition, horsemen must get involved in these contracts and start asking questions, increasing attention on the racing wagering business.

If you would like more information, please reach out to TIF Executive Director Patrick Cummings or one of the TIF board members.

The post Thoroughbred Idea Foundation: Horsemen Deserve Fair Compensation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Report: Navarro Had Judge’s Authorization For Ocala Move, ‘Shall Have No Contact’ With Racehorses

Trainer Jorge Navarro, one of the defendants in a federal case based around alleged doping of racehorses, received approval this week to move to Ocala, Fla. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, an order from U.S. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil would allow Navarro to reside in Ocala and travel to South Florida to meet with his attorney or specific family members.

The order also states he “shall have no contact whatsoever with racehorses.”

On Thursday, this publication released an investigative report on program trainers which included a look at Tomahawk Racing Stable, a new ownership entity in South Florida which has exclusively run horses with previous ties to Navarro's barn. Gulfstream Park officials say they have monitored the transfer of all former Navarro-trained or owned horses carefully, and that Navarro is not training horses on-site at its facilities.

Ocala is home to a number of private training centers which do not fall under the jurisdiction of state racing regulators or racetrack ownership. Although those facilities are permitted to post official workouts to a horse's record through Equibase, there is often no oversight on who is handling or conditioning horses based at such facilities.