Emerald Downs 2014

[Al Gobbi]

they have cut Fridays from the first three weeks of the season, and as a result will only race on a two day per week schedule in April - Saturdays and Sundays.

They plan to race three days a week (Friday - Sunday) from May through September, but no guarantees due to the uncertain horse population.

http://emeralddowns.com/News.aspx?ID=507&Mon=1&Yr=2014

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Bummer. Did they have live racing other weekday nights last year? I'm going to be in Seattle on business quite a bit this spring, and was hoping to catch a card or two, but staying for a Friday night card makes for a long drive back to Portland or another night on the road on my dime...

[kingfin66]

They are slowly fading away up here. Once upon a time the used to run on Thursday nights beginning in June, but those days are long gone.

[tanner12oz]

Seems like tvg pushes the crap out of the product

[deathandgravity]

They are dying a slow painful death up here. Very inferior/poor product.
Been to SA/DMR/HOL/KEE more in the past 5 years then EMD & I live 60 minutes from the track.


Sure miss Longacres

[EMD4ME]

I must say, Emerald is probably by favorite track of all time. I am based in NY and wager predominantly on NYRA. However, when EMD season comes along, all my attention goes there. Yes, I must play small to not impact prices much but they have the most form full product in the country. To each his own but I wanted to give a plug to my favorite track in the U.S.A. I love their track feed, their announcer, their deceptive track bias and most importantly they offer 1 thing that NYRA does not.... horse handicapping, NOT trainer handicapping. Kudos to them for not being a slot parlor (yes I do realize they have an agreement with the Muckleshoot tribe-forgive me if I misspelled Muckleshoot). They deserve to be supported.

[Just a Fan]

Has Portland Meadows announced their 2014 dates? EmD was hurt by having to compete with Portland for horses last year.

[EMD4ME]

Portland Meadows' website has their schedule updated thru Jan 26th. They did start their 2013 meet abnormally on July 21st which did impact the horse population at EMD. I hope they don't do that again this year.

[HuggingTheRail]

And to the north, Hastings is fading fast, and still hasn't announced 2014 dates.

[jballscalls]

Portland Meadows' website has their schedule updated thru Jan 26th. They did start their 2013 meet abnormally on July 21st which did impact the horse population at EMD. I hope they don't do that again this year.

Of course we're going to do it again next year. We had great crowds all summer long and the field size was way up this meet as was handle comparable to the first summer meet in 2012.

Believe it or not nobody wants to come watch live racing in the rain and cold. We overlap with Emerald for about 8 weeks.

PM usually announces dates sometime in april or may.

[Just a Fan]

Of course we're going to do it again next year. We had great crowds all summer long and the field size was way up this meet as was handle comparable to the first summer meet in 2012.

Believe it or not nobody wants to come watch live racing in the rain and cold. We overlap with Emerald for about 8 weeks.

PM usually announces dates sometime in april or may.

Jason, I just don't see it. PM used to run on Mon and Wed in their winter meet in 2012. They ran Sun and Wed in their summer meet in 2013. I picked the common day (Wednesdays) and compared the handle on 5 Wednesdays from Feb 2012 to the first 5 Wednesdays in August and Sep 2013.

2012 February Wednesdays: ontrack average 25,768, out-of state average 1,060,991

2013 Aug/Sep Wednesdays: ontrack average 23,217, out-of-state average 457,299

(50 total races in 2012, 49 in 2013)

Portland gave up the niche they had (a light racing calendar on Wednesdays in the winter) so the simulcast handle tanked over 50%. And even the ontrack handle somehow dropped 10%. And in the process they hurt Northwest horsemen by shortening the racing calendar, and they hurt the fans by helping to create short fields at 2 tracks.

I've got nothing against Portland Meadows, they do some nice things for bettors. I get that it sounds nice to race in the summer, but in this case I don't see any evidence that anyone benefitted from it.

[jballscalls]

Jason, I just don't see it. PM used to run on Mon and Wed in their winter meet in 2012. They ran Sun and Wed in their summer meet in 2013. I picked the common day (Wednesdays) and compared the handle on 5 Wednesdays from Feb 2012 to the first 5 Wednesdays in August and Sep 2013.

2012 February Wednesdays: ontrack average 25,768, out-of state average 1,060,991

2013 Aug/Sep Wednesdays: ontrack average 23,217, out-of-state average 457,299

(50 total races in 2012, 49 in 2013)

Portland gave up the niche they had (a light racing calendar on Wednesdays in the winter) so the simulcast handle tanked over 50%. And even the ontrack handle somehow dropped 10%. And in the process they hurt Northwest horsemen by shortening the racing calendar, and they hurt the fans by helping to create short fields at 2 tracks.

I've got nothing against Portland Meadows, they do some nice things for bettors. I get that it sounds nice to race in the summer, but in this case I don't see any evidence that anyone benefitted from it.

600,000 of out of state handle translates to PM making about 9 grand. You have to remember out of state simulcast wagering numbers might look huge (comparatively speaking), but what the track takes in, it's nothing. So we have to make up 9 grand somewhere. Having 2,000 to 5,000 people at the track in the summer on Sundays and having on track handles of 3 times more than the numbers you listed up there make up the difference and then some. Food and Beverage sales, program sales, chew up that lost simulcast handle pretty quickly. On a winter Monday/Wednesday there was probably 200 to 300 people at the track, 100 of those being horsemen.

By running in the winter and on weekdays we're essentially giving up on getting any new fans or new owners to get into the game locally.

This summer I believe we had three on track handle days that were bigger than any we'd had in the previous seven years (that's how long I go back there, but I think it's more like 10 years). We've actually started to create a local buzz and following. Hopefully the trend continues.

Also, our field size is up over our last fall/winter meet. We've gained field size.

My opinion, and this is my opinion, we could have gone straight into the grave without putting up a fight. Or we could have done something radical to try and shake things up. Which would you have picked?

[jballscalls]

The 600k is 18k in revenue, not 9. But PM sees 9 after the state, horsemen etc

[EMD4ME]

I'll say 1 thing: I wish EMD had PM'S pick 4 & pick 5 takeout rates.

[Just a Fan]

If I'm going to criticize PM when I don't think their schedule makes sense, I have to also give credit when the end of meet shows strong gains. :ThmbUp:

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/83138/daily-averages-up-at-shorter-portland-meet?source=rss

[lamboguy]

i thought it was a real good meet. the racing secretary did a super job putting races together with the stock he had to work with.

[EMD4ME]

OPENING DAY IS SATURDAY!!! I may be in the minority but I can not wait! It's been a looooong offseason.

[ultracapper]

It is absolutely depressing what has happened to Washington racing, and I see no way it can survive any more than another 3 or 4 years. The breeding industry was wiped out when Longacres closed, and most of the big money trainers left for GG and TurfPar. Longacres ran 10 races a day Wednesday through Sunday right up until it closed. Emerald doesn't have that many horses total to draw from. The purses are horrid. Hastings purse structure puts it to shame. The pools are awful, and as has been mentioned here, a $200 bet can cause havoc with a horse's odds 3 minutes to post.

Ron Crockett has performed a miracle up here getting us this far, but he's in a gun fight with a spatula. He has nothing to work with, no money to spend, and an 18-35 demographics population that won't embrace his product.