Page 90 - Speedhorse March 2018

OQHRA and Remington Park
Announce Big Increases
In Purses For 2018
by Debbie Schauf, OQHRA Executive Director
Many of you will remember that dur- ing the 2017 legislative session, the racing industry was successful in
passing two important pieces of legislation. One was a provision that took the funding for the operations of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission (OHRC) out of the annual appro- priation process. All of the income generated by racing - from wagering, gaming, fines, fees, etc. - had originally accrued all to the State. Then each year, the commission met with the appropriations committees in the House and Senate to request enough funds to operate for another fiscal year. Over the years the fund- ing, due to the State’s budget problems, had been cut to the point it was difficult for the OHRC to effectively regulate the industry. Oklahoma horsemen, racetracks, and their lob- byists successfully obtained the approval of the legislature to restructure the funding for the commission, with the horsemen and the tracks taking a slightly smaller share of the gaming funds, and a small percentage of the gaming money was allocated to fund the operations of the agency effective July 1, 2017, which was the beginning of the State’s fiscal year 2018.
The second important piece of legislation was a revision in the State Tribal Gaming Act that allowed both Will Rogers Downs and Remington Park to expand their gaming opera- tions from 106 hours per week to 24 hours per day/7 days per week. Although Will Rogers Downs has not yet expanded to a full 24 hours of operation, Remington Park switched over effective July 1 of 2017.
The switch to 24/7 operation brought some major challenges for the accounting depart- ment at Remington Park, and it actually
took until late November or early December for OQHRA to see what the effect of the expanded hours had on the revenue generated for horsemen’s purses.
In setting the purses for the 2018 race meet, the OQHRA board met several times and reviewed the projected funds to be available for purses during the meet and determined that it
was important to restore the cushion of funds carried as an underpayment each year up to the $1.2 million level as an “insurance policy” that the 2019 stakes schedule would be fully funded for Quarter Horses and a $400,000 cushion was available for the Paint and Appaloosa stakes schedule. With that determined, there was still a significant amount of money avail- able to increase overnight purse levels for Quarter Horses by $1,500 per race, and the Paint and Appaloosa purses by $ 500 per race.
At the January commission meeting, the executive director of the commission ques- tioned the reason for the breeds to maintain the proposed underpayments and, apparently, Remington Park had not requested permission for an underpayment or an overpayment for those breeds in their original license applica- tion for 2018. The over or under payment is required to be identified at the time the license application is submitted, and if it is not, then
it can be approved by the commission upon
the joint request of both the track and the horsemen’s organization. Between the January and the February meeting, the OQHRA board met and proposed further purse increases with some reduction in the proposed underpayment, based on the fact that the 24/7 operations at Remington Park were consistently producing about a 24% increase in revenue for Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa purses.
Although the first condition book is already printed, the OQHRA board and Remington Park have agreed that there will be an addi- tional increase in the Quarter Horse overnight races of $1,500 for a total increase over 2017 levels of $3,000. And, there is an additional $1,000 per race for the Paint and Appaloosa overnights as well, making a total increase of $1,500. Based on OQHRA’s current projec- tions, the resulting underpayment for Quarter Horses will be reduced to just over $700,000 and the Paint and Appaloosa underpayment will be approximately $300,000.
With over $ 12,000,000 ($12 million) to be paid out in the 2018 meet, there will be about
$2.7 million in added money for stake races, the trial purses for Quarter Horses will be $10,000 and $6,000 for Paints & Appaloosas, and the balance will go to overnight purses.
It is important to remember that the projected underpayments are at this point
just our best guess based on current income and the number of overnight races that we
are able to fill for each breed and the level of purse required for those races. Since 2006, the OQHRA board has worked very hard to be fis- cally responsible in setting levels that could be maintained even if the track should experience a catastrophic event that caused a loss in gam- ing or racing revenue. That underpayment pol- icy served the industry well when the Racing Commission staff made an almost $2 million- dollar miscalculation several years ago that resulted in an overpayment of OKB funds. The QH breed was able to repay the overpayment without a massive cut in the 2017 overnight purses. One of the member services provided by OQHRA is the constant oversight of the purse accounting and distributions to see that, within the guidelines adopted by the board
or permitted in the Racing Act, the purses are protected and paid as set forth in the Racing Act. Another reason for the proposed under- payments is that the OHRC has a rule that to accept any payments for futurity or derby races, the added money must be in escrow prior to accepting any payments for those races. The OQHRA board believes that insuring the funds are available for those races the next rac- ing year is critical to protect the breeding and racing of Quarter Horses in Oklahoma. The added money required to fund Quarter Horse races is $1.1 million and another $350,000 for the Paint and Appaloosa races.
Just a reminder that the OQHRA board meetings are always open meetings. Purse status reports are given at every meeting. Your input is always welcome. The next meeting
is March 27 at noon at Heritage Place. If you have any questions about how purses work, please feel free to call our office.
88 SPEEDHORSE, March 2018