With simulcasts limited, Texas track suffers historic plunge
Horse racing in Texas went on the sport’s critical list at Lone Star Park this year.
With its signal for simulcast wagering restricted within Texas and to Canada, the Grand Prairie track handled $36,926,157 less in 2023 than in 2022, it was reported.
Located off Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, Lone Star handled $14,573,630 between April 13 and Tuesday, a 72% dip from 2022 when the track handled $51,499,787. The 2023 numbers were 82% below 2021’s record handle of $81,289,170.
Purses totaled $11,340,625, down 9% from last year, but 61% higher than the $4,296,465 in purses in 2019, when handle nearly tripled what it was this year.
In better days, Lone Star hosted the 2004 Breeders’ Cup.
Coming under fire is the Texas Racing Commission, whose executive director, Amy Cook, interpreted Texas law as only authorizing the TRC to regulate horse racing in the state, thus excluding the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority from being involved. Without HISA involvement, Texas thoroughbred racing was unable to simulcast via the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978.
Texan Karl Broberg, whose End Zone Athletics led Lone Star owners a third-straight season, derided the Texas racing board’s leadership in that “the state could easily be reduced to just quarter-horse racing going forward, and I doubt Amy Cook would care. There has been no effort on their part to articulate any sort of plan.”
Downstate, Sam Houston Race Park lost $95,326,353, or 94%, from a record $101,716,901 in 2022 to just $6,390,548. Overall in 2023, handle on Texas thoroughbreds is down 86% from $153,216,688 last year to $20,964,175. Purses fell 13% from $24,671,396 to $21,472,885.
Broberg called the 2023 Texas racing season “the longest funeral procession since Queen Elizabeth passed away. Also, it had the same vibe where you knew your time should be spent elsewhere, but you kept watching anyways.”
The trainer’s End Zone Athletics had 26 wins from 128 Lone Star starts for $536,131. His 4-year-old filly Jan’s Turn won a meet-high four of six starts. Broberg finished 16th among trainers in purses earned at Oaklawn this year, winning $626,156 at a 10% rate.
In the year that he set a North American record with 10,000 training victories, native Texan Steve Asmussen topped the Lone Star standings for the fourth year in a row. He had 52 wins from 245 starts, amassing $1,536,628, with Broberg second with 38 wins from 180 starts.
Stewart Elliott, best known for his work with dual-classic winner Smarty Jones, topped the jockey standings with 48 wins from 236 starts for $1,313,070. He won with 20% of his mounts, leading jockeys with more than 30 starts. Rene Diaz was second among Lone Star jockeys with 37 wins from 194 starts.
Asmussen finished second in Oaklawn victories, 61-56 to Robertino Diodoro, but topped the local standings with earnings of $5,141,239, well ahead of runner-up Brad Cox and Diodoro. Asmussen saw his win percentage at Oaklawn drop to 14% but reveled in the top-10 finish by son Keith in his first season riding at the track. Asmussen’s splashiest Oaklawn victory of the Oaklawn season came with racemare Clairiere in the Grade 1 $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap April 15. His record 10,000th career win, passing the late Dale Baird, came Feb. 20 at Oaklawn.