Lone Star Park

[dav4463]

Lone Star Park's slogan for the upcoming season should be "from riches to rags".

That place is nasty! The simulcast area is dilapidated. The same ugly green carpet is still there since day one. The TV monitors have burned out bulbs on half the screens that require you to watch the races through a big yellowish green spot on the screen.

On the patio, most of the TV's either have a bad picture or the channel changers are broken. About half of them work and the others don't come on at all. The place is filthy.

Except for a handful of employees, most of the workers there are sour, disinterested, and downright rude to the patrons.

The Race Info guy in the simulcast building is a great guy though! One of very few!

The actual main building also has it's share of broken TV's and sour employees who could care less if you are there or not.

How does a track that recently hosted the Breeder's Cup and one that was so beautiful when it opened turn into such a disaster?

Do they not care at all? How about a paint job? How about some new carpet? How about replacing the tent flaps covering the stage and the "party in the park" area? They have so many holes in them that the rain will come straight through it.

The landscaping has weeds growing that makes it look like the landscaping at a trailer park.

It's the only game in town I guess, but with a new season starting....couldn't they clean up just a little bit?

They used to send "Lone Star Bucks" to Lone Star club members in the mail. Sometimes you would get up to $15 of free wagers. You would get free parking, a free hot dog and drink too.

Now you get a card that you are supposed to swipe every time you make a wager which is a hassle in itself. After you bet around $2000, you almost have enough points for a free cup of coffee!

I miss Trinity Meadows.

[JustRalph]

Magna!!!!!!!!!!

[dav4463]

Yeah, I guess you are right. Still though, you would think there would be enough pride in your place to get six beer bottles, a basket of half-eaten nachos, and ten or twelve cigarette butts off of a dirty table so others could sit down outside. I saw one table remain dirty for the entire time I was out there....at least two or three hours.

[facorsig]

Not sure I would be so quick to point at Magna. I was a LS regular until I relocated to Houston in 2000. I was there 4-5 times per week for the time I was not overseas. Some considerations:

Many of the large bettors were owners with horses formerly at LaD. With La slots, the handle and purses at LS have suffered. I suspect those same owners have gone back to LaD. When the money went away, so did the enthusiasm. Difficult to maintain investment without the income.
The location is less than prime unless you live in mid Cities. Traffic was so bad for big race days that I was frequently tempted to stay away.
Over time, the place seemed to be overrun with members of gangs.
Associated evidence in use of illegal substances
When I returned to Houston after the LS experience, I was actually more pleased with the service and condition of the older and smaller Hou facility than I was at LS. With that said, I have not been to either track regularly in four years.

Fred

[schweitz]

I miss Trinity Meadows.

Hard to believe it has been 12 yrs--I miss it too.

[llegend39]

You can send John Lies an email today at TVG I think he's on from noon-330 Eastern He is the track announcer there. I think he make like to hear your comments.

[lsbets]

I used to be out at Lonestar every day Wed - Sunday. Management is terrible, they care nothing about the better. They screwed a lot of people around Breeders Cup time and I know a lot of folks who haven't been back since. LAD getting slots has also had a huge negative impact on the quality of fields at Lonestar. It went from a second tier track trying to get to first tier to a third tier track with little promise for the future. Its a shame, I loved the place, but they ran it into the ground.

[BombsAway Bob]

You can send John Lies an email today at TVG I think he's on from noon-330 Eastern He is the track announcer there. I think he make like to hear your comments.
He'll be available at mail@tvg.com
I think he has a Tuesday shift from 4-7pm also

[ranchwest]

LS has always assumed that they could reach into the pockets of every patron and rip out every penny, then treat the patron worse than dirt and expect them to come back every day.

Breeders' Cup Day was the breaking point. It was the biggest disaster event I've ever attended.

When it opened, LS was a beautiful facility that suggested excitement to everyone who saw it. It didn't take long to go downhill and stay there.

Magna has done nothing to improve matters.

LS cares nothing at all about bettors.

I've only listed LS's best points, maybe we can get into the really bad stuff later.

[Kelso]

Very disheartening to learn of Lone Star's slide. I guess pride-of-ownership has a price that Stronach isn't willing to pay. When did it open and when did Magna buy it?

[DrunkenHorseplayer]

Opened in '96; don't know when the Magna monkeys bought it.

[dav4463]

I sent an email with a link to this thread.

[dav4463]

To add to the story, the security guards are rude too.

I'm betting Mountaineer. I take a walk outside of the simulcast patio to look at the track and the "party in the park area" to see if they've cleaned anything up since live racing would be starting in a couple of days (nothing was cleaned up by the way). We had 15 minutes until race time so I walked out in the courtyard area with a friend and we were just talking about the next race and getting ready to go back over and check the odds.

That's when a security guard very rudely said, "Can I help you?" I said, "no, I'm just walking around for a bit." So he says, "Well, I'm going to have to ask you to go back to the patio."

Why? We aren't hurting a darn thing by walking around and looking. Besides that, there were other people out there at different times throughout the night, but Barney Fife chose us to speak rudely to and go on his power trip.

I told the racing info people that Winstar Casino in Oklahoma has a race book and friendly workers and it is only 35 minutes from my house and the rude employees at Lone Star Park are going to drive a lot of people away.

[rrpic6]

Does anyone have info about Lone Star's problems with ADW's? No betting today on twinspires or expressbet.

RR

[schweitz]

Does anyone have info about Lone Star's problems with ADW's? No betting today on twinspires or expressbet.

RR

BetPad says that the horsemen haven't signed off on it yet---not that I could wager online on Lone Star anyway since I live in Texas. :mad: