Contest organizers hope to crack a track blackout in Nevada

Players in next year’s National Horseplayers Championship might yet be able to bet on high-profile racecourses blacked out in Nevada, if tournament organizers have their way.

Chief operating officer Keith Chamblin said the National Thoroughbred Racing Association will seek permission to put Fair Grounds and Oaklawn on the menu of tracks available to competitors in the 2022 tournament, which is scheduled for Jan. 28-30 at Bally’s Las Vegas.

“We are on the verge of reaching out to both Oaklawn and Churchill Downs,” Chamblin said on the Vegas Stats & Information Network racing podcast. “Essentially, what we’re going to ask for is that they consider carving out NHC weekend to allow our customers – some of our very best customers, some of Oaklawn’s best customers and some of Churchill’s best customers who are here – to at least use those races in the contest here at Bally’s.”

Churchill Downs Inc. owns Fair Grounds and controls the simulcast distribution for Oaklawn. The problem for the NHC is a nearly two-year-long impasse between CDI and the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association. A dispute over the split on takeout, especially the Kentucky Derby, has prevented Nevada racebooks from taking pari-mutuel bets on or even showing races from CDI-controlled tracks. The NHC is affected, because it is required by state law to be conducted through the Nevada tote system.

Without Fair Grounds and Oaklawn, the menu of top-level races available to NHC players next winter would be significantly thinner, leaving only Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita as primary tracks. Next-level meets at Aqueduct, Golden Gate Fields, Laurel Park and Tampa Bay Downs would fill out the players’ choices.

Making the situation bleaker is the possibility that, if racetracks do not alter their Thursday schedules, the Jan. 27 “last chance” competition for the final 15 seats in the tournament would omit Fair Grounds and be limited to only 25 races at Gulfstream, Aqueduct and Golden Gate.

Since the NHC is a contest made up of mythical bets rather than a real money, Chamblin hopes CDI will approve the waiver. He hopes for the same OK from the NPMA, whose members include Bally’s Las Vegas through its owner Caesar Entertainment.

“I think Caesars is in agreement that if we can’t take pari-mutuel action on those races, at least let’s allow our customers to use them in the contest,” Chamblin said. “I would hope that if one of their largest members, Caesars Entertainment, is aligned with our request, that wouldn’t be an issue, but who knows?”

As Chamblin pointed out, the NTRA’s request would not extend to real-money wagers during the NHC weekend. If the impasse persists, Nevada bettors would still be barred from gambling legally with real money on races at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn.

The two tracks had been available to NHC players in 2020, the last time the contest was held on its normal dates in the winter. Contracts that Nevada racebooks had with Fair Grounds and Oaklawn have since expired. CDI then put those courses under the same umbrella as Churchill Downs, Arlington Park, Presque Isle Downs and Turfway Park, all tracks that it owns – and all blacked out in Nevada.

Horse Racing Nation is waiting for a response to requests late Thursday for comment from CDI, Oaklawn and the NPMA.

Because the 2021 NHC was postponed six months by COVID, it landed during a time when the impasse had little impact. Arlington Park and Indiana Grand, whose signal is controlled by CDI, were the only active tracks conspicuous by their absence from the tournament menu last week. With Saratoga, Del Mar, Monmouth Park, Woodbine, Ellis Park, Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields on the menu, the selection of races was deep for NHC competitors.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board also would have to approve the NTRA request before any waiver could take effect.