Ohio tracks not yet licked despite dipping handle

By: Mel Hagemeyer
Jan. 29, 2008

Ohio’s overall wagering drop in 2007 at all horse race tracks is definitely bad news. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that any tracks will close this year, it does mean that the quality of the sport has declined even further in our state.

Overall handle declined 12.7 percent, but five of the seven tracks posted even larger wagering losses, including here at Lebanon Raceway. Handle is the sole revenue source that drives our industry, and the simple fact is that when handle drops, everything suffers – including the legacy of harness racing in Ohio.

Handle is the money at the top that feeds the entire horse racing industry. It’s ALL of the revenue a track generates, not the profit. Handle is paid out in bettor winnings, purse prizes, general fund and special assessment taxes and track workforce and operations. So when handle drops substantially, as has been the case the past several years, so does every related business, not just the earnings of the race tracks.

Race horses compete for the prize money generated by wagering, and when there’s less of that money, there’s less reason to compete in Ohio. Prize money, or purses, is the whole point of horse breeding and training, so why keep doing it if the investment doesn’t pay off?

This industry is dying without the ability to compete with surrounding states. Horses are racing for peanuts in Ohio while the surrounding states offer big dollars boosted by casino gaming proceeds. Much of those casino gaming proceeds to other states are contributed by Ohioans, so dollars that used to be wagered in Ohio are going out of state.

Ohio now gets the leftover horses instead of the cream of the crop. This creates a vicious cycle because as tracks, we want to shore up attendance but are left marketing a lessexciting race card than a few years ago. Ohio has only just lost its status as the top standardbred production state in the country, so it is especially frustrating to know thatgreat horses could be running here if the Ohio-based breeding operations had a reason to keep top stallions and mares at home to produce state-registered foals instead ofproducing foals in states with expanded gambling to race for the higher purses.

The news is bad, but it’s not too late to reclaim Ohio’s share of modern horse racing. Racing here needs expanded gambling to survive and could actually thrive if tracks getit in time to remain competitive. We’ll just have to wait and see how the business continues while we keep waiting for an expanded gambling solution at tracks that our citizens can support.