Page 88 - Speedhorse March 2018

Purse Money In
Where It Comes From
Why Some Tracks Are Better Than Others by Debbie Schauf, OQHRA Executive Director
Let me start by saying, “IT’S COMPLICATED,” but I will try to break it down so it is somewhat easier to
understand. First of all, by law, the money earned at each track must be used for purses and Oklahoma Bred (OKB) money at that track. And, money earned betting on live races is breed specific so Quarter Horse money can only go to Quarter Horse races, and Paint & Appaloosa money can only go to races for those two breeds. Same with Thoroughbred racing. This applies to money earned from betting
on live races, simulcast-in races, and exported wagering (simulcast out) wagering on the track’s live races. It also applies to all money for purse or OKB earned by gaming machines at a specific racetrack. In Oklahoma, both gaming tracks have separate meets for Thoroughbred and for Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa racing except at Fair Meadows where the mixed meet requires a lot more accounting to keep the purses earned separated by breed.
Why are Purses and OKB Money So Much Bigger at Remington Park?
Remington Park has 750 gaming machines that average somewhere above $375 per machine per day in income for state, horsemen, and track. Will Rogers only has 250 gaming machines, and they average something in the range of $200 per machine per day. Remington has 50 days and 560 live Quarter Horse/Paint & Appaloosa races and Will Rogers Downs only has 28 days with 330 total live races for Quarter Horse/Paint & Appaloosa breeds. Fair Meadows has NO gaming machines, and only a total of 400 live races in 34 days, and that means only 170 races for Quarter Horses and 60 races for Paints & Appaloosas.
So just with this information, if you do some simple math, you can easily see that the purses are always going to be bigger and better at Remington Park than either of the other two tracks, just because of the greater amount of revenue generated at Remington
Park. Will Rogers will be second largest, and Fair Meadows will have the lowest levels based on the lawful distributions of money earned at the tracks.
The distribution of the revenue from the various sources at each racetrack is a little more complicated. In general, purse money at the track comes from three sources:
• Betting on the Live Races
• Betting on Simulcast Races
• Gaming money from machines at
tracks that have machines
• OKB money comes from three
sources, too:
• A small percentage (.5 to .75%) of
exotic wagers on live races
• Unclaimed tickets and breakage on
live and simulcast wagers
• Gaming money from machines at
tracks that have machines
Let’s Take Racing Purses First
Basically, on a live horse race, the horsemen get about 10 cents for every dollar bet on track live at that racetrack for purses, the patron gets back 80 cents, and the state and the track get the other 10 cents. On races we export, like
for betting at Lone Star on Remington Park Quarter Horse races, we get 1.3 cents for every dollar bet and the state and track get 1.7 cents (collectively we only get 3 cents on every dollar bet on the export of our races), which is why we work so hard to get people to come to the racetrack and bet and not go to an OTB some- where else. In addition to the 10 cents on live wagers that go to our purses, exotic wagers pay an additional 1/2 of 1 cent which goes to OKB purses, and all of the unclaimed tickets that are not eventually cashed goes to the OKB as well as the breakage (odd cents on the dollar). So, a way lower proportion of the money goes to OKB from betting on live races than goes to the purse money for those races. Full card simulcasting does not generate any money for
OKB other than unclaimed ticket and break- age money from what is actually wagered at the Oklahoma racetrack.
On incoming simulcast, regardless of breed in the imported race, Quarter Horses get 8%
of the net retained and Paint & Appaloosa
get 2% with the Thoroughbred getting 90%. The net retained is calculated by taking the takeout on every dollar (approximately 20%
is takeout and 80% returned to bettors in the pari-mutuel pool) and deducting the cost of
the signal which is 3% to 6%, and dividing the remainder by 1/2. An example would be $.20 less $.06 cost of signal leaves $.14, so track gets $.07 cents and the horsemen get $.07 cents . . . and the Thoroughbred get 90% or .063 cents, and Quarter Horse/Paint & Appaloosa get .007 cents (less than one penny!) . . . not much, in other words!
By far, the majority of the purse money and the OKB money comes from the horsemen’s share of gaming machines....
For example, at Will Rogers last year, the Quarter Horse purse money from live racing was only a total for the year of $40,672, and
for Paints & Appaloosas was $6,502. With 270 Quarter Horse races and 60 Paint & Appaloosa races, the average purse per race would be almost nothing. But, when you include gaming money earned at Will Rogers Downs that goes to purses for Quarter Horses, it is another $2.04 million, and for Paints & Appaloosas it is $226,500.
At Remington Park, the picture is a little better. Quarter Horses annually earn about $550,000 from live and simulcast wagering, and Paints & Appaloosas earn about $73,000. Each year, Quarter Horses also earn about $9.5 million from the machines at Remington Park, and Paints & Appaloosas get about $1 million. That is divided over approximately 480 Quarter Horse races and 80 Paint & Appaloosa races.
Fair Meadows generates about $400,000 for Quarter Horse purses from live and simul- cast, and only about $116,000 for Paint & Appaloosa purses.
86 SPEEDHORSE, March 2018