Saturday, Jan 23

On Friday evening about 100 horsemen gathered for about 2 1/2 hours at Balmoral Park to discuss the 2010 racing season. President of the IHHA, Dave McCaffrey, as he has for the last six months painted a bleak picture. “We are about $1.6 million in debt and we're not generating what we're paying out in purses. Without the 3% money coming soon, 2010 will look very, very different and be financially impossible." The best case scenario for the release of that money is sometime in March.

Obviously the main topic of discussion was why after three weeks off is there such a drastic (25%) purse cut. Dave explained the intricacies of how we earn our purse money and what percentages we actually earn from handle. He showed how even though on some nights we handle a million dollars, 80% of that money comes from out of state where we receive only about 1.4%. We gain much more on live handle in state (between 4.75% and 11.75% per bet) but there is, unfortunately very little of that. In other words, 80% of our handle on a million dollar night produces only $11,200 in purse money. Very simply put, we don't generate what we've been spending.

Recapture, was also discussed. Recapture owed in 2010 figures to be just under four million dollars. Our 2010 contract will defer 70% of that and we will pay 30% this year out of our purse account. So, in doing the math, we will pay about $1.2 million for recapture this year. With purses at their current level, that means that the effect the 30% of recapture has on purses is around a negative 7-10%.

Other topics high on the list of angst for horsemen are the tracks lack of proper marketing, the poor condition of the backside and our own integrity question marks. The horsemen were also very vocal about an Illinois owned, bred, or trained preference system. A consistent question was why do we need to accept other low quality horses from out of state. We have plenty of our own cheap horses. Horsemen understand the need for quality animals coming to our tracks but are insistent that we keep out low end non-Illinois owned, bred, or trained horses.

Slots at tracks were also discussed. Dave reiterated that slots were the only long term way out of the mess in which we currently find ourselves. He explained that good slots bills have passed through the Senate but always stalled in the House. We will continue trying and we will continue to make sure the bill is good for the horsemen. Dave explained that there was language for a new slots bill for 2010 which was an unfair bill for horsemen. It was a much less equitable bill for us than in previous years.

On a more upbeat note, the horsemen were happy that the contribution to open stakes was cut by 50% and the assignment of the rail was eliminated at Maywood Park. Other than that it was a meeting that was honest about the immediate difficulties that we face and how potentially bad Illinois harness racing could become if the 3% money isn't released or if a fair slot bill isn't passed.