Santa Anita not reported favourable after the end of winter/spring meet – Horseracing news
Santa Anita has just recently completed its winter/spring meet and the statistics have been flowing since. According to several sources, the figures that Santa Anita has been able to churn up this year in terms of pari-mutuel handle have not been high.
The horse racing industry of the region has not been able to recover significantly from the effects of recessions. The already troublesome industry which was having a hard time attracting younger crowds of spectators had to deal with rising costs and shrinking
revenue.
As a result, many of the racetracks of the nation were shut down because they were not generating enough revenue to cover their costs. The remaining racetracks were left to face with shrinking purses and an urgent need to look for alternate ways to bring
in more cash.
Santa Anita is one such racetrack that has been able to keep itself strong in light of the economic situation of the country. However, it has still faced problems.
Last time around, the number of days that the racetrack was able to feature live horse racing totalled to be 78.
Unfortunately, Santa Anita has not been able to match that number in this year’s meet. The live horse racing days that spectators at Santa Anita were able to witness amounted to be eight shy of last year’s, i.e. 70.
The fact that Santa Anita had eight less days in which to host the races translated into the number of races being held at Santa Anita to decrease significantly. The number of races that were not held this year as compared to the previous one is 65. The
change that the racetrack underwent from being a synthetic surface to a dirt one amidst much opposition was expected to increase the amount of handle; however, this could not be possible.
The president of Santa Anita racetrack, George Haines, made the following statement regarding the issue, “Our original intent was to go to a five-day week in March and in April, but we simply didn’t have the inventory to support that at the time. California’s
horse inventory crisis is one of the key factors in Santa Anita’s final numbers.”
Tags: