LOS ALAMITOS : Harness Racing Faces an Uncertain Future

With only two nights of racing remaining in the 1994 winter-spring meeting, the future of California harness racing is once again uncertain.

Last Friday, the Premier Harness Racing Assn., which has been leasing Los Alamitos for harness racing, appeared before the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting in Emeryville, requesting six simulcast races each night for a harness meeting at Cal-Expo in Sacramento. The PHRA’s plan for a meeting includes four nights of racing weekly--Wednesday through Saturday--from April 29 through July 23.

The program would include six simulcast races from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., followed by eight live races. Currently, at Los Alamitos, a typical program includes three simulcast races and as many as 12 live races three nights a week, Thursday through Saturday.

The PHRA’s proposal was opposed by representatives of the quarter horse industry, who believe that simulcast races would affect the mutuel handle on live quarter horse races this summer at Los Alamitos.

In the end, the CHRB approved only four simulcast races for the beginning of the Sacramento meeting, which would drop to three after June 15 when an influx of 2-year-olds would begin racing and help alleviate a horse shortage.

Harness racing interests were not satisfied, and the PHRA investors met on Saturday to discuss their options. A subsequent request was made to CHRB members, quarter horse interests and especially Edward Allred, a 50% owner of Los Alamitos and the president of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn., which operates quarter horse racing at Los Alamitos, to reconsider and allow six simulcast races a night.

The PHRA had hoped to hear by Wednesday, but that deadline passed without any positive news from the harness industry. By Thursday, the possibility of a harness meeting this summer had dimmed.

“I don’t know if there’s precedent for the CHRB to overturn a decision,” said Dave Goldschmidt, the PHRA’s racing secretary. “We think they made a poor decision and it will be hard for them to admit that in a few days.”

Goldschmidt said that if the CHRB doesn’t allow six simulcast races a night, it would be difficult for his group to go forward.

The PHRA maintains that without six simulcast races a night from Sacramento, investors have little or no chance of recouping their investment. Harness racing at Sacramento has always been a less productive meeting than Los Alamitos’. Last year’s average Sacramento handle was $393,000, compared to $841,000 at Los Alamitos.

The PHRA hopes to use the simulcast races as an opportunity to raise money not only for operators, but also for purses for live racing.

The 13-week meeting that concludes Saturday was put together on short notice. In December, three weeks before the meeting started, the CHRB approved the PHRA’s lease, forcing the group to work through the holidays to put together racing programs. Fortunately, many horsemen were already operating in California and had horses at some level of training.

The meet began slowly, a reflection of the few horses ready to race. Business was also affected when purses were cut 20% at the end of January. But slowly, the mutuel handle began to rise, and with it the purses.

Last week, purses grew 10% for the second time since the reduction, meaning horsemen are racing for about the same money as at the start of the meeting. Weekend mutuel handles, which were stuck at about $900,000 at the beginning of the meeting, are now routinely above $1 million on Friday and Saturdays.