by Dave Little, for Breeders Crown
As the saying goes, “It takes a village.”
That’s a good way to describe what’s happening in harness racing
in the State of Indiana.
The Hoosier State, known much more for hoops than hopples, has
everybody on board as Hoosier Park, not a major a player in the sport
historically, now has management, government, patrons and horsemen all on the
same page, as the seven-eighths mile track continues to make its way toward the
sport’s mainstream.
For the next two weeks, Hoosier Park, currently fifth in North
America in purse distribution, will take center stage in the sport. They are in
the midst of a furious brush to the center of the harness racing universe as
the Breeders Crown comes to town for the first time October 27 and 28
(Eliminations on October 20 and 21).
“We were ecstatic,” said Hoosier Park President and Chief
Operating Officer Jim Brown on being contacted by the Hambletonian Society
to host the year-end championship races. “We knew we were gaining a good
reputation in the country as being horseman-friendly. People made sacrifices to
make this happen.”
The process actually began in 2006, when Hoosier Park (which
opened for business in 1994) was acquired by Centaur Gaming from Churchill
Downs.
“That was a turning point,” said Brown. “We don’t look at racing
as a spreadsheet item. We look at the grand picture of our company, and racing
fits right in as an integral part.”
Further strides were made when Centaur acquired Indiana Grand in
2013. This allowed Centaur to strip both Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand down
and rebuild as breed-specific facilities. Hoosier as the harness venue, Indiana
Grand as the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse track.
But Brown, and chairman and chief executive officer Rod Ratcliff
have long histories in racing.
“Both of us have been affiliated with racing for our entire
adult lives,” said Brown. “And believe racing operated within a gaming facility
has to be as important as anything else. You don’t make money in housekeeping,
but that doesn’t mean you operate a dirty facility. We both love racing. We
like to joke that we are either a casino company that loves horse racing or a
horse racing company that knows how to run casinos.”
So why does it work at Hoosier?
Hoosier signed a seven-year agreement with theirs in 2014,
giving owners, trainers and drivers some stability and confidence.
“The money that the horsemen got from casino revenues was
attached to the state budget,” said Brown. “And every year, there would be a
bill proposed to take that money away under the guise of why are we subsidizing
that industry? So, as we are trying to build an industry, we had horsemen
uneasy who might have wanted to relocate to Indiana because it was unstable."
“We worked with the state legislature to create a bandwidth of
10-12% that would go to racing and move it off the state books and back into
the owner-operator and horsemen relationship with one another. The horsemen do
a lot for us in bringing their best efforts to our facilities. We could pay
them 10 or 11% for the length of the agreement, but we wanted to pay them 12%
because we were in a building mode of the industry.”
The economics are apparently working. Hoosier races 160 cards a
year and the horsemen have approximately $56 million in purse money a year to
work with. Between Hoosier and Indiana Grand, casino revenues total about $461
million (after $14 million in “free play” is factored in). Based on a sliding
scale where the state takes more as gaming revenues rise, the most the state
can rake from the pot is 35%. In terms of where they rank, Brown says that
Indiana is in the lower end of the top third in terms of how much the state
takes.
“Economic impact studies show that racing has a value of over a
billion dollars a year to the Indiana state economy,” said Brown. “And that’s
an important responsibility on our part to make sure that we treat racing with
the respect it deserves. We worked with Purdue University on several studies
that showed the economic value of horse racing in the State of Indiana. Out
here in the Midwest, that means something.”
Brown and his team are trying to leave no stone unturned as the
Breeders Crown draws near, but knows there are limitations based on his
location in Anderson, Indiana. “We have about 20 different committees meeting
on the Breeders Crown. We want to get it right. It’s the first time in Indiana.
It’s all of us on a mission. We’re not in New York or Chicago. We are
surrounded by corn fields.”
That’s why Hoosier relies in a big way on its simulcast
presence, as 95% of money wagered on Hoosier’s races are wagered off track. “We
have a great commentary team and we try to come up with new camera angles that
don’t get people confused along with the fundamental information that bettors
need,” said Brown.
How will Brown measure success with the Breeders Crown he’s
about to host?
“By how we feel as a team in what we did compared to what we had
hoped for. Another is customer feedback to us, whether it’s an export customer
or someone at the track. It’ll also be measured by handle. Those are pretty
much the three main areas. Another important one is what our horsemen and
visiting horsemen think.”
“A goal was to try and get a Breeders Crown,” said Brown. “We
weren’t sure it would be offered to us, but then the Hambletonian Society
contacted us. The horsemen voted to dedicate $500,000 of their money to the
event and we dedicated $400,000 of our money and said,
‘We want to put on a show’. We want to raise the bar on every aspect
of the event.”
And with everybody working together, Hoosier Park figures to do
just that.
