April - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA
Executive Newsletter
A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond
Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor April 24, 2002
PURSES UP, UP AT WOODBINE
Woodbine Entertainment and the Ontario Harness
Horse Association have announced a 3% increase
in purses, effective the first week of May. If any
questions remain as to what slots can do for purses,
consider this: the latest purse increase means that
purses have risen 100% in the last five years at
Woodbine Entertainment’s Woodbine and Mohawk
operations. The new boost takes the average
purse per race at the two tracks to $22,500, and
before the year is over WEG will have paid overnight
purses totaling $62.5 million. Jamie Martin,
vice president of Standardbred racing, says the
latest increase “reflects continued strong support
for our racing product, and an increase in operating
hours on the slot floors of Woodbine and
Mohawk racetracks.”
H.R.3215 ON HOLD, IGN SAYS
House bill 3215, better known as the Goodlatte
bill, will be considered sometime during the next
week or two, according to Interactive Gaming
News. That was reported here on April 17, but
the newsletter says the measure updating the 1961
Wire Act to include Internet gaming will be part of
a “rolling mark-up, which means there won’t be
an exact schedule by which the committee will look
at each bill slated to be marked up.”
HOLD ON TO THAT TOTE BOARD
Hard core horse players are not ready for high
technology, it seems. Pimlico in Maryland, which
has torn down a third of its tote board and replaced
it with a 26 x 32-foot video screen called a
Lumitron, has been ordered by the Maryland Racing
Commission to halt demolition of the traditional
board after “a steady stream of complaints” from
patrons. COO Lou Raffetto told the Washington
Post that Pimlico will consider rebuilding the
tote board, and move the Lumitron to Laurel
to supplement that track’s existing tote
board.
PLEASE TELL ME IT WASN’T ME
Kris Johns is vice president of marketing at Hoosier
Park, HTA’s member track in Indiana. Since
April 13 her telephone has been buzzing with calls
from ladies in Muncie, Indiana, hoping she can talk
them out of suicide. Well, perhaps not quite that
serious, but after it was announced that a lady from
Muncie had been mailed a mutuel ticket worth
$1.75 million and did not redeem it, the ladies of
Muncie who had received tickets in the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association promotion because
they were on Hoosier’s mailing list of 60,000
names, just had to know if it was them. Kris told
them all she didn’t know who the winner was, and
NTRA wasn’t saying, so it’s now on to August,
when the booty goes up to $2 million. This has
been going on since August of 2000, with no one
redeeming a winning ticket, and each subsequent
failure raising the pot by $250,000. It’s a great
promotion. You can be sure all those ladies from
Muncie will be at Hoosier August 3, the next drawing.
The April 13 drawing fell on opening night of
Hoosier’s harness meeting and produced the
track’s second largest handle for harness, which
will still be racing Aug. 3. Thanks, NTRA. Good
work!
HOLLYPARK SETTLES WITH TOC
Hollywood Park, which opens today, won a photo
finish with the Thoroughbred Owners of California
yesterday, reaching accord on horsemen’s
shares of revenue from telephone account and
Internet wagering. Horsemen will receive 5.3%
of bets placed by California residents on
Hollywood’s races, 4.5% from bets by Californians
on out-of-state races, and 1.8% on bets placed out
of California on California races.
CONGRESS ON HTA WEB
All presentations from the Harness Racing
Congress now are on HTA’s Web site,
www.harnesstracks.com.