Sam Houston Race Park opens Friday with new schedule
Facing a big hit in handle, Sam Houston Race Park opens Friday with fewer dates and a new schedule that shifts race cards later in the week.
The Texas track moved its races from evenings to afternoons and shifted its dates from early in the week to a Friday-Sunday schedule, with Monday racing on Martin Luther King Day and President’s Day. The 43-day meet, down from 50 days last year, will end April 8.
The changes will help the track deal with an expected sharp drop in handle resulting from an ongoing dispute between the Texas Horse Racing Commission and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. The commission does not recognize HISA's authority, and as a result, tracks in the state are not allowed to export their simulcast signals to other U.S. markets.
"That was close to about $100 million of our handle last year," Frank Hopf, assistant general manager at Sam Houston, told Horse Racing Nation on Thursday. "So with that being said, we're going to be short about a million and a half in purses earned from export."
Hopf said cutting seven days from the calendar "basically made up the difference."
The meet again will feature the Houston Racing Festival card, which reportedly was on the brink of being canceled. The five stakes will be anchored by the $300,000 Houston Ladies' Classic (G3), down from $400,000 last year, and the $200,000 John B. Connally Turf (G3). Also, the Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile purse was cut in half, to $100,000.
Regarding other changes, he said, "We had to make some decisions on how our meet was going to work. And obviously, there's a lot of changes that we know are a dramatic change for our customers and our loyal horse players around the country. And even for us, moving to daytime racing is something we've done on just a handful of days each season. …
"Our plans and our marketing goals for this season is to really drive people back to the track here in Houston. And we felt that a 1:00 afternoon post time would certainly be a start to do that."