Playfair Officials Decline To Seek Racing Dates For 1996

Management at Playfair Race Course declined to seek 1996 racing dates in Spokane at Wednesday’s Washington Horse Racing Commission, all but assuring at least a one-year closure of the track to on-site racing after 59 seasons of operation.

But while leaders of Playfair Racing Inc. told the racing commission in Lacey they would not operate the track in ‘96, track owner Jack Pring was holding out hope that a ‘96 season might be salvaged.

“I don’t know if all the cards have been played yet,” Pring said Wednesday. “There are people who still love horse racing. I’m one of them.”

Pring said his comments - the first on the record involving his track in nearly four years - should not be read to mean that he’s ready to step in and run a race meet. He operated Playfair successfully from 1981 through 1989, but said he has no plans to resume control.

The final year of the Horton group’s lease with him has yet to be settled, Pring said.

“I consider Horton a friend,” Pring said. “All Stan Horton has ever asked for is a level playing field.”

Pring suggested the state could level the field and assure a season here by adopting legislation that would provide warm-weather race dates with statewide and possibly full-card simulcasting in Spokane.

That is not likely, since industry leaders on the west side of the state are lined up against overlapping seasons and dual-carding simulcasting.

Pring said it’s time the industry acted on the Spokane track’s behalf. Although he said he doesn’t favor subsidizing Playfair through legislative action that would provide a portion of the parimutuel handle at the new Auburn track to the Spokane track, Pring said the sport can be profitable in Spokane if it were run competitively.

“Until Ron Crockett came into the picture (to finance the new track in Auburn), our family had more personally invested in horse racing than anybody in the state,” Pring said. “That hasn’t been recognized or respected within the industry.”

Asked if he planned to develop the 65-acre site at Main and Altamont into something other than a race track, Pring said, “I’m sure there are other things we could do with it, but I’ve been going to that track since the 1930s. If we’d wanted to do some development I supposed we could have, but we’ve put together a lease with Stan and we’d like to see horse racing continue.

“When you’re out of money, the game’s over. I respect that. Anything I discuss with Stan will be as a friend. But I want to think something can be worked out.”

Racing commission executive secretary Bruce Batson said Horton’s group on Wednesday “preserved the position” of Playfair’s dates, from mid-August through December, in the event another operator stepped in to run the meet.

“This was a surprise to everybody,” Batson said. “Everybody here understands the decision. Given the projections, he is not going to assume the risk.”

Playfair general manager Dan Hillyard has estimated that the track will lose at least $400,000 in ‘96, with a cutback in statewide simulcasting brought on by the new Auburn track’s unusual, one-year-only season that runs into November.

Horsemen from Spokane who attended the meeting are coming home to seek alternatives to closing the facility, Baton said.

, DataTimes