Playfair’s Latest Plan Is For 58-Day Season

The general manager at Playfair Race Course will tell the Washington Horse Racing Commission Wednesday of plans for a 58-day season, from mid-August through December.

But the dates that Playfair GM Dan Hillyard will take to the commission’s monthly meeting in Lacey remain tentative.

The unresolved question is financing a 1996 season in Spokane with only 27 days of state-wide simulcast wagering. Playfair ran 48 days in ‘95, all with state-wide off-track betting.

With 21 fewer days of simulcasting, track officials are projecting a $700,000 decline at the betting windows, Hillyard said.

The new track in Auburn, Emerald Downs, will open later than anticipated, on June 20, and run into November, forcing the Spokane track to push its season through December.

In ‘97, Emerald Downs is expected to revert to a traditional April-September season, Hillyard said.

“We’ve got the ‘96 dates sketched out,” he said. “If we can limp through ‘96, and make it so somebody can step in and lease (Playfair), when everybody falls back to traditional dates, then ‘97 and beyond looks favorable.”

Playfair president Stan Horton is in the final year of a lease with track owner Jack Pring.

“Our goal is to fill the gap,” Hillyard said. “We’ve spent a lot of time with the horsemen, the people on the west side of the state and the commission. Everybody understands the predicament. We’re all working to solve it.”

, DataTimes