Fairplex Season May Be Cut Short, but Bets Are On

At Fairplex Park in Pomona, where harness racing has been greeted with nothing resembling unbridled enthusiasm, the current season will probably close on June 27, a month ahead of schedule.

Betting on harness racing at Fairplex will not end, however. Starting in early July and running through Aug. 15 or 22, the Pomona track hopes to offer betting on televised races from the Cal Expo in Sacramento, something that is known in the industry as simulcasting.

The plans at Fairplex are contingent on the approval of the California Horse Racing Board and the passage of a bill by the State Assembly. Ralph Hinds, the president of Fairplex, is confident that both of these things will happen.

These developments should enable the moribund harness-racing industry in California to buy some time and stagger through another year. It may only be a thumb-in-the-dike measure, however, because as Hinds says: “All of our facilities are in trouble--Los Alamitos, Fairplex and Cal Expo. And we’re losing horse owners at a tremendous rate.”

Cal Expo, which refused to run a four-week meeting under an earlier schedule, will wind up with a season that starts on July 2 and runs through either Aug. 15 or 22. Cal Expo’s races will also be simulcast to 9 or 10 facilities in northern California.

“This is an attempt just to keep the industry alive in California,” said Chris Bardis, the president of Cal Expo.

According to Hinds, Fairplex has been averaging 2,000 a night in attendance and about $300,000 in handle, which are declines of 14% and 20%, respectively, from last year’s inaugural season.

The horse situation at the track is just as discouraging. Of the 1,200 horses stabled at Fairplex, many are 2-year-olds and only about 450 are really able to race.

“We should have at least a total of 650,” Hinds said. “We’ve had trouble filling the entry box every day. We’re not making money, but at least we’ve cut our losses some.

“In the beginning, we said it would take three years to get our market established. But in addition to all of our other problems, there’s been the hassling among the harness people themselves. There may be another season here next year, but I’m not sure the same group will be operating it.”