Manor Downs could Go Down
Manor Downs is Texas’ oldest pari-mutual horse racetrack. Its live races cover both Thoroughbred and Quarter-horse racing. Even though this well-fueled, popular track sits comfortably next to a Turf Club, which also promises to bring in the big bucks, the economy for horse racing just isn’t strong anymore.
Manor Downs CEO, Howard Phillips blames the sports’ declining popularity on the equally declining economic climate, telling The Associated Press: "Texas horse racing has been on the decline for the past 10 years.” Thus, Manor Downs has not even bothered to apply for any live racing dates for the upcoming year. Phillips executed the end date to the live racing officially for the 25th of July, 2010.
Not only has business dropped by 40% at the track since 2008, but they totaled a loss in that first year of the deficit of a striking one million dollars. The declining climate cannot alone be held responsible, according to Phillips, who also points his finger at horse racing legislators who have allegedly let the entire horse racing industry go to neighbouring regions without a fight.
The legislators are also responsible for the declining horse breeding market that supports the sport and they have not made a single play to save it.
What could save the Manor? Phillips suggests that the slots other legislatures have passed in neighbouring states could be the answer and suggests that these slots have single-handedly saved their race tracks. He explains to The Associated Press: "Other state Legislatures have passed slots at horse race tracks, so Texans are driving across borders to place bets on both races and slots in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana.”
In other words, legislatures passing the bill on slots at race tracks in other states, combined with Texas’ legislatures’ refusal or simple apathy not to do the same, has amounted to a catastrophic economic result for Manor Downs whose clients are leaving to give tracks in other states their hard-earned money.
Phillips goes as far as to argue that 90% of the money spent at the other tracks’ slot machines is Texas money: "Texans board planes every day to gamble at horse tracks, and maintain there are two buses a day that head to out-of-state races.”
Executive Director of the Texas Quarter Horse Association, Rob Werstler, called the decline and possible extinction of the Manor “devastating to the quarter horse breeding industry” adding to The Statesman that the famous Texas Manor has hosted “world champions that have won their first championship at Manor.”
So why is Phillips giving up? In a brief to The Statesman, he called the move “smart business,” adding that the only way for the property to be put to any use (such as a training facility or concert venue) is for him “to get out of the front lines and onto the sidelines.”
Maybe the tracks can once again survive as a concert setting, being at one time an exhibition center for such performances as The Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But since pari-mutuel was legalised in Texas over 20 years ago, the Manor Downs was the first track to get up and get running so fast that it just ended its 21st year.
Phillips pointed out that other Texas tracks did not last nearly as long, when he boasted: "We've been there the whole time and never wavered.”
With parking for over twelve-hundred vehicles on its busier race days, the Manor would see 500 fans, excluding the Club. It also spans over 165 acres and features a large, oval track for thoroughbreds and yet another for quarter horses.
Clearly a great venue for a live concert, Phillips has not entirely thrown in the towel. He is looking for help from fellow Manor owner chief executive, Bryan Brown, who owns Retama Park in Selma to see if some racing dates could be picked up or shared. Seeing as how Brown concedes to The Statesman that all Texas tracks are losing business to neighbouring tracks, Brown’s best answer to Phillips’ pleas is that: "It would be very, very difficult for us to do.”
Looks like it is time for Manor Downs to go down and for concert lights to go up in its place.
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