When does the $1,000,000 a day start at MTH?

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

There are a lot of racetracks out there steep in double digit declines right now, or declines out-pacing the industry's current situation (around -8% or so). It's a ripple effect. It's also people leaving the game etc... a combination of factors.

When Monmouth is posting the numbers they're posting, they are yanking money here or there from a lot of racetracks. Even if it's just worth 20k per race at a place like Louisiana Downs, Lone Star or Arlington, that adds-up fast. For example, at LAD, 20k / race * 9 races = 180k... or about 7-12% of our average handle. That's significant for a place like here. Now, our product is not very good right now, so it's compounded, but that's a result of the ripple effect and overall state of the game.

Monmouth is running far less races that are unattractive (small fields), so last year while players might look elsewhere here or there, now they're not. A place like LAD can't find "spots" anymore like it used to. When CD closes, we'll see what happens, as that'll free-up a large amount of coin. But in general, the national simulcast landscape has changed.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? This is the market dictating what the market wants, so we'll see what the long term impact is, both in terms of short-term handle and business performance, but also industry trends regarding race dates / races.

As for Belmont... Big Sandy is immune to a lot of things... they have a powerful brand, the most powerful brand in the country, which is why a lot have wrote about how despite the smaller fields / purses etc., they're still out-handling MTH. So using them as a gauge for anything besides the overall industry is pointless.

Travis ... LAD is in the same friggin state as Evangeline Downs.

Forget Monmouth Park ... you have a red headed stepchild who all of a sudden is blooming into a full fledged hottie right in your own stomping grounds.

EVD averages over 10 starters per race on dirt - and now they have a brand new turf course ... that's a cheaper brand of racing - but it's product is at it's absolute finest.

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Travis ... LAD is in the same friggin state as Evangeline Downs.

Forget Monmouth Park ... you have a red headed stepchild who all of a sudden is blooming into a full fledged hottie right in your own stomping grounds.

EVD averages over 10 starters per race on dirt - and now they have a brand new turf course ... that's a cheaper brand of racing - but it's product is at it's absolute finest.

They always have, their field size has always dwarfed ours. This is the first year though where EVD is consistently whipping us in handle. Even if you factor in our loss of field size (which is not super significant overall, but there none-the-less), we should't be doing as poorly as we are. And we're not the only track posting such numbers.

When you erase the industry factor, the only other significant change has been Monmouth. They're yanking a few million more per day away from the middle to lower tier tracks. Our Thursday handle this year has been solid... a day when there is no Monmouth.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

They always have, their field size has always dwarfed ours. This is the first year though where EVD is consistently whipping us in handle. Even if you factor in our loss of field size (which is not super significant overall, but there none-the-less), we should't be doing as poorly as we are.

This is only the 2nd year that EVD has run turf races - as they recently had a turf course installed for the first time.

I know that 10 years ago MTR racing was a very big thing among the small group of semi-serious and serious local players .. and those guys are all on the EVD bandwagon right now. I don't blame them either ... if you can stand real cheap racing .. or actually love it ... that's as good as it gets. I think people are slowly starting to figure that out. MTR racing is on a downword spiral.