Without Simulcasts, All Bets Off Horsemen’S Group Says It Needs Income Now To Re-Open Playfair

A Spokane horsemen’s group that wants to re-open Playfair Race Course has asked the state racing commission for permission to open for training and resume simulcast wagering operations.

The commission, in a written order last week, said it would grant Lilac City Racing Association an operating license if it met specified conditions.

Meeting those conditions before opening for training - or before resuming revenue-producing simulcasting - presents a burden in satisfying the commission’s concerns, the horsemen’s group writes in a May 28 letter to the commission.

The encouragement that followed last week’s conditional approval for a license has been tempered by the demands of time.

“Lilac feels that all securities issues have been addressed,” the group’s general manager, Ross Yearout, writes in the letter. “Should Lilac not be allowed to commence simulcasting immediately, and soon thereafter open for training, our ability to put on a race meet will be severely hampered.”

The commission will meet a week from today in Auburn. An update on Playfair’s license application is on the agenda.

The horsemen’s group, in its letter, proposes a three-phase plan “in order to insure compliance with the conditions of the commission’s order, and to meet our goal of live racing.”

Lilac City wants to start simulcasting races from tracks around the country after it meets six conditions raised by the commission’s staff.

Those include an assurance that non-racing events will not interfere with race days. Horsemen sub-lease the Playfair facility from the Muckleshoot Tribe, who in turn lease the track from owner Jack Pring.

Denied a Class B license to operate parimutuel wagering on horse racing at Playfair, the Tribe stages non-horse-racing events at Playfair as the lease holder.

Repairs to the simulcast area inside the Playfair facility would also be completed under the horsemen’s first-phase proposal.

Commissioners want the group to demonstrate financial viability.

Yearout writes that an irrevocable letter of credit issued by Idaho Independent Bank for the terms of the lease, made in Lilac City’s name, and accessible by officers of the corporation, will be submitted to the commission.

Horsemen say they have sufficient financing to complete a race meeting. The last on-site season at Playfair ended in the fall of 1997. The track was closed to simulcast wagering last August when the Muckelshoots’ amended application for a license was turned down.

Yearout writes that a separate account would be set up for breeders bonuses. All funds would be deposited weekly, co-signed by the head of the state thoroughbred breeders association, Yearout writes.

By meeting those conditions, horsemen hope to convince the commission to license them for simulcasting prior to the 43-night race season they hope to launch here on Sunday night, Aug. 22.

A share of receipts from simulcasting go to fund local horsemen’s purses.

By meeting other concerns expressed by the commission’s staff at a May 11 meeting in Spokane, the Lilac City group also hopes to be allowed to open the track for training.

Those conditions include completing repairs and providing beefed-up security on the back side of the track.

With Yakima Meadows down and out, Playfair is the only Class B track in Eastern Washington. The Class C facilities - the fair meets in Dayton, Waitsburg and racing at Sun Downs in Kennewick and elsewhere - are not enough to sustain the racing industry in the state, Yearout writes.