“Horse Racing Capsules: Long shot Miami Deco wins Breeders' Stakes” plus 1 more

Horse Racing Capsules: Long shot Miami Deco wins Breeders' Stakes

Posted: 15 Aug 2010 04:11 PM PDT

TORONTO — Miami Deco, a 60-1 long shot, overtook Stormy Lord on the rail to win the 120th running of the $500,000 Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday.

Miami Deco, ridden by Richard Dos Ramos, was third down the stretch but came on hard on the inside to win the 1½-mile race on a turf course downgraded from firm to yielding following an afternoon rain storm.

Miami Deco won in an unofficial time of 2:34.24 to earn $300,000 for owners Jim and Susan Hill.

Stormy Lord was second with Cognashene, the 2-1 favorite, taking third in the 13-horse field.

Neither Queen's Plate champion Big Red Mike nor Prince of Wales Stakes winner Golden Moka took part in the final jewel of Canadian racing's Triple Crown.

Position Limit wins Adirondack Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Position Limit, ridden by John Velazquez, wore down Alienation with a furlong to run and drew away to a convincing 5-length win in the $150,000 Adirondack Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Sunday at Saratoga Race Course.

Position Limit was held up behind a blistering pace and moved wide into contention to engage the leaders leaving the turn. She ran 6½ furlongs in 1:17.30 for her second win in as many starts.

Position Limit paid $5.10, $3.20 and $2.50 and earned $90,000 for her owners, the Starlight Partners.

Alienation paid $4.20 and $3.90, while Coax Liberty, third in the field of 10, paid $6.20 to show.

Dubai Majesty wins Monmouth feature

OCEANPORT, N.J. (AP) — Dubai Majesty overtook West Ocean in the final strides for a neck victory in the $100,000 Incredible Revenge Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday.

Trained by W. Bret Calhoun and ridden by Miguel Mena, the 5-year-old mare covered 5½ furlongs over a firm turf course in 1:02 1-5 and returned $6.40, $2.60 and $2.20.

West Ocean paid $2.20 and $2.10, while Lady Rizzi, another 3¾ lengths back in third, paid $3.40 to show.

It was the 10th win in 31 career starts for Dubai Majesty, who has earned $769,243.

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Horse racing industry in decline

Posted: 14 Aug 2010 09:31 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

The stretch run of a Zia Festival race Aug. 1 is pictured here at the Ruidoso Downs Race Track.

Editor's Note: Lincoln County voters are facing a pivotal question: Whether to impose a 3/16th of a cent tax on goods and services to grant Ruidoso Downs Race Track & Casino "tax parity" with two nearby Mescalero Apache casinos.

All of Lincoln County has been polarized by a threat to move the track and by the business retention bill, HB 203, which would raise the GRT rate across the board, depending on the results of a special mail-in election to be tabulated Sept. 21.

The Ruidoso News is publishing a series of articles on the issue, leading up to the vote outcome.

In this story, titled "Industry in decline," reporter Jim Kalvelage writes about the state of horse racing in New Mexico and across the country, an industry searching for a new breed of customer.

RUIDOSO - With some racetracks in New Mexico and around the country struggling, the horse racing industry has become a tough business proposition. That is clear from financial statements of a couple of New Mexico tracks. And the situation is echoed by Ruidoso's Eddie Fowler, vice chair of the New Mexico Racing Commission.

"It is a fair assessment that horse racing is on a decline," he said. "They're struggling. Even in Kentucky, which is a premier location, they're struggling."

Fowler said the woes in New Mexico would have been much worse without the late-1990s' inclusion of slot machine casinos at the racetracks.

"That helped the purses at the horse tracks," he said. "If we had not done that, there

might be just one track in New Mexico. A lot of us worked hard on it from the mid- '90s because New Mexico's racing industry was really struggling."

The track casinos, often referred to as racinos, have greatly improved the purses for horse owners.

The current downturn at a couple of New Mexico's tracks, including Ruidoso Downs, can be attributed in part to the state of the economy, said Fowler, who is a partner in a couple of Midtown businesses.

"I really feel like right now, all over the state, the economy is not good. I look up and down Sudderth Drive and there's a lot of people but they're not carrying lots of bags. People have cut back."

Proof is in the numbers

Attendance during the 60 days of racing at Ruidoso Downs during 2008 registered a daily average of 4,033 spectators. In 2007 the daily average had been 4,294 compared with 4,112 in 2006 and 4,206 in 2005. The average daily amount of pari-mutual wagering at the track was $314,246 in 2008, nearly identical to 2007. In 2006 the daily average handle was $280,371, the same as the previous year.

But figures from the national Jockey Club show the total pari-mutual handle on all U.S. Thorough-bred races declined 9.8 in 2009. That followed a drop of 7.3 percent in 2008. In fact, five of the past 10 years have posted a reduced handle.

The number of races conducted in the U.S. also fell in eight of the years between 2000-2009.

Across the country, wagering on Thoroughbred horses reached a peak of $15.2 billion in 2003. The total handle has fallen or at best held steady since then.

Some tracks in recent years have closed or required help because of declining revenues. The most recent to shut down, Manor Downs near Austin, Texas, was the Lone Star state's oldest pari-mutual track. The facility's CEO, Howard Phillips, said the track could reopen if legislation to aid the horse racing industry was approved or if the track was sold.

Tribal vs. racetrack casinos

New Mexico adopted legislation in 1997 that allowed horse tracks to add video gaming with a goal of providing revenue to improve purses for winning horse owners. The measure was touted as a way to improve the quality of horse racing in an industry on the decline and attract more spectators.

The Ruidoso Downs racino opened in 1999.

Racetrack officials have said revenues at the Billy the Kid Casino have fallen by more than half since 2002.

The decline, from $15.46 million in 2002, to $7.36 million last year, also similarly impacted gaming taxes paid to the state and monies used to sweeten purses at the horse track.

"Every year since 2004 we've had a net loss in market share," Curtis Hilling, vice president of finance at Ruidoso Downs Racing told the Ruidoso News about the casino in May. "There are three casinos in this tiny, little area, and that's a lot."

While the 2008-2009 recession had an impact, Hilling said there has also been a loss of market share because of Mescalero's Travel Center Casino.

The American Gaming Association noted earlier this year that the worst recession in a generation cut gaming revenues at casinos, including in New Mexico.

"During 2009, the U.S. commercial casino industry was a valuable contributor of jobs, taxes and economic development nationally and in the state and local communities where it operated, despite recent economic challenges," said Frank Fahrenkoph, Jr., president and CEO of the gaming association.

"The entire country was in the grip of a crippling recession last year, and the gaming industry certainly was not immune to its effects on consumer spending."

Fowler said if full casino venues were ever allowed at tracks, the purses would be much larger. But he felt that would not happen.

"There's not, however, a level playing field with casinos in New Mexico," Fowler said of tribal and racetrack casinos.

Overall, Ruidoso Downs Racing posted a net loss of $1.458 million in 2009.

The loss had been $2.256 million in 2008, and $373,541 in 2007, according to annual financial statements from the company's auditing firm. The Downs at Albuquerque also posted losses the past three years. SunRay Gaming of New Mexico, which operates a horse track and casino at Farmington, and Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino in Sunland Park, however, have both reported solid profits during the same period.

Appeal to youth?

Appealing to a younger generation enthralled with auto racing is a key to the industry's future, Fowler said. "This (racing) commission wants to create a family atmosphere. Get the younger people to the tracks. It gets burned into them. We've got to the younger generation involved."

The 20 to 25 minutes between races could also be a time to provide activities for young people. Fowler said parents can drop into the casino or simulcast wager at other tracks, something unavailable to minors.

The area's wagering options have other enterprises that are also struggling.

The Mescalero Apache Tribe's gaming enterprises have realized reduced net wins the previous two years, as well. But the two-year decline of 8.7 percent over 2008-2009 at both the Travel Center Casino and the Inn of the Mountain Gods, was softer than what the Billy the Kid Casino reported.

Net win is the total amount wagered at the casinos less what is paid out in prizes. Tribal net win in New Mexico represented nearly 75 percent of total net win among tribal casinos, racinos, nonprofits and bingo/raffle net proceeds.

The New Mexico Gaming Control Board reported the net win from racetrack racinos' gaming machines went from $76.3 million in 2000 to $257.2 million in 2009.

The gaming taxes, from four racetrack operations in 2000, totaled $19 million for the fiscal year. In 2009, the tax revenues had grown to $66.8 million, a three-fold jump. A fifth track and casino, Zia Park and Black Gold Casino in Hobbs, opened in 2005, adding to the revenues.

That has added to horse racing purses over the past decade, which have climbed from an initial $15.264 million to $51.447 million by 2009.

Revenue sharing to the state from tribal casinos has risen from $12.2 million in 2000 to $65.9 million most recently. Over the decade additional tribal casinos were added in New Mexico.

Jim Kalvelage writes for the Ruidoso News, a member of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership.

Horse Racing

Sunday, August 15, 2010