Playfair Will Be Showing Signs Of Life

Playfair Race Course will open for training Saturday, an encouraging sign that the Spokane thoroughbred track will be operational come fall.

Director of Racing Ted Martin said Wednesday he’s confident that the Muckleshoot Tribal Council’s announced intention of leasing Playfair will become a reality.

A best-case scenario would put opening day on Sept. 20. Playfair hopes to offer a split meeting - three days per week from Sept. 20 through Nov. 8 without off-track betting, and November through January, or later, with state-wide simulcasting.

Not as encouraging is the off-track betting stalemate in Spokane. Martin, recently appointed vice president of New Playfair Park, Inc., said he doesn’t see a break in the impasse that has kept Playfair from offering simulcast wagering on races from Emerald downs in Auburn.

Martin put some depressing numbers on what the state and the state’s horsemen are losing with three key off-track wagering sites now dark - Playfair, the Muckleshoot casino in Auburn and Yakima Meadows.

The three refuse to accept a reduction in their take of the wagering pool at their sites, from 4 percent to .5 percent.

The industry is turning its back on $150,000 per day - the combined amount the three sites would probably handle on races from Auburn, Martin said.

“Generally, 6-1/2 percent of that goes to (horsemen’s) purses,” Martin said. “The state takes 2-1/2 percent, the owners 1 percent and 1 percent of the exotic betting pool goes to the breeders. That leaves 8-9 percent for the track.”

A $150,000 loss per racing day means nearly a $10,000-per-day loss to horsemen’s purse accounts and another $3,750 that should be going to the state, Martin said.

Multiply that by 100 - the number of days in the Emerald Downs racing season - and the loss is significant, he added.

“I can see why the state doesn’t want to get involved in disputes between private parties (Emerald Downs and Playfair, represented by the Muckleshoot tribe),” Martin said. “But I can’t see why it’s passing up $3,750 a day. I think the state has an obligation to get the parties together.”

Another aspect of the David-and-Goliath confrontation is what Northwest Racing Associates, operator of the Auburn track, is asking from Playfair in the event Playfair’s races are simulcast at Emerald Downs.

“They want 11 percent when we send our signal to them,” said Martin, noting that 11 percent is out of the question when the track’s take is only 9 percent.

, DataTimes