Horse Betting Short A Few Bucks Handle Insufficient To Support Purses During Playfair’s Opening Weekend

Playfair Race Course goes to three nights of racing this weekend, hoping to improve on its dismal opening-weekend wagering figures.

Although initial reports of the money handled at the Spokane track on Saturday and Sunday nights are boosted a little higher when betting on two other tracks is taken into account, public response at the mutuel windows still was only lukewarm.

Saturday night, bettors in Spokane wagered $86,079 on Playfair’s eight races. The on-site handle on Sunday night - $60,110 - was worse.

Spokane horseplayers wagered more than $30,000 a day on simulcasts of race cards from Emerald Downs and Del Mar. Combined with statewide off-track outlets, Playfair customers generated $189,906 on Saturday night and $166,896 Sunday night.

Spread over an entire season, that’s not enough betting to support the horsemen’s current purse structure.

The on-site numbers may not improve much this weekend but the statewide bottom line should be better, with more compatible post times with Emerald Downs.

Playfair’s first post Friday is 5:35 p.m., about 10 minutes before Emerald’s first event.

Last week, King County response to Playfair’s evening starts were compromised by afternoon programs at Del Mar and Emerald Downs. Emerald’s Sunday card was headlined by the Grade III Longacres Mile.

After a long day of betting Del Mar and local races at Emerald Downs, most fans were leaving just as Playfair was cranking up. The crowd in Auburn bet $39,583 on Playfair’s eight races Saturday night. That figure fell to $35,688 on Sunday.

Playfair needs a stronger response to its programs in King County.

It probably doesn’t help that horse-players at Emerald Downs have to ask a customer service representative for a Playfair insert to their Daily Racing Form. The Emerald version of The Form has room for only two tracks, the two most popular, Emerald Downs and Del Mar.

To Seattle area handicappers who do their homework the night before, it’s easy to overlook the Spokane track.

Calls this week to Playfair CEO Don Johnson and GM Kim Rich were not returned.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Johnson said on Saturday night.

Prospects for an improved handle - a percentage of which supports purses for horse owners as well as track operations - is good, industry leaders say. If Playfair continues to come up with full, competitive fields, it should catch on at off-track sites in and possibly out of state.

Few tracks will offer as many horses, as many betting interests - and the likelihood of bigger payoffs - than Playfair this weekend. Friday night’s card includes three races with a full field of 10 plus the eighth-race feature with nine horses. Saturday’s eight races include six with full fields.

Unfortunately, track officials are scrambling to get out-of-state venues to take their signal. The Washington Horse Racing Commission office reported this week that a contract with the harness track in Northfield, Ohio, has been received, but a Playfair official said it’s unlikely Northfield will be an operational OTB site this weekend.

On the plus side, the elimination of opening-weekend bugs should make for a better weekend.

The off-track betting site in Moses Lake, El Papaguyo’s, for example, handled $2,428 on Playfair’s Sunday night card and nothing the night before. The restaurant had a class reunion booked and didn’t carry the Saturday card.

Moses Lake is one of Playfair’s important OTBs. It’ll be on-line Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, a restaurant co-owner said.

, DataTimes