Move to Mondays bolsters wagering

Sam Houston Race Park’s quarter-horse season ended with one big jump and otherwise mixed results.

The jump resulted when Thursday night quarterhorse programs switched this year to Monday afternoons. The nation noticed that change. Simulcast dollars wagered from other sites on Monday races rose 38 percent over last year’s Thursday programs, said Andrea Young, SHRP’s president and CEO.

The track experienced a similar boost when it added Mondays and eventually Tuesdays to its thoroughbred season.

With few tracks offering live races on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, SHRP took advantage of the void and grew its national following.

“We weren’t predicting what to expect by switching to Monday quarterhorse programs,” Young said. “But we were very pleased with that 38 percent increase.”

Young said the 2017 quarter-horse season probably will again run from March through May, following the traditional January through March thoroughbred season.

“I don’t anticipate material changes for 2017,” she said. “We’re just starting to look at things like our stakes program, which is something we want to improve every year.”

Young said the thoroughbred stakes program looked even better when runners in the three major 2016 stakes — the Connally, the Maxxam and the Sam Houston Ladies Classic — moved on to perform well at other tracks.

Young continues to spend “about one day a week” in Austin, where her mission seldom changes. She attempts to persuade state legislators that electronic gaming at Texas tracks would enrich the state’s treasury.

Of the 19 states with pari-mutuel horse racing, Young said only Texas and two other states do not also have slots or other forms of electronic gaming.

“When I do speak with legislators, they always listen,” Young said. “They never say, ‘I won’t talk with you.’ Of course, I’m always willing to talk with them.”