Support hots up for Horse Racing Channel
As reported by The Racing Post

The Horse Racing Channel, a proposed new daily TV service being set up by individual racecourses, continued to gain momentum on Monday, when seven more tracks revealed they have signed, or are on the verge of signing, a contract. Their approval takes the number of courses lined up behind the intended subscription channel, which is seen as a satellite and cable successor to Attheraces, to 27, out of 59 possibles.

Together they account for 564 meetings on this year's fixture list of 1,341. With a 42 per cent share of the racing calendar, the THRC promoters already regard this as sufficient to put together a reasonable programme of fixtures, offering a minimum of two meetings on most days, though they expect the numbers to grow in the coming days. The latest courses to join comprise six in Yorkshire - Beverley, Catterick, Pontefract, Redcar, Thirsk and Wetherby - and Musselburgh.

Doncaster and York were among the original founder members of THRC, leaving only Ripon's executive, among the nine Yorkshire tracks, still to make up its mind.

Doncaster chief executive John Sanderson, whose IRM management company also operates Catterick, Redcar and Wetherby, said: "This may be the courses' last chance to control the destiny of our media rights. There are many issues to be resolved in the next few years, not least the question of betting-shop pictures, and though the returns from THRC might be thin in the short term, if you take a five-to-ten-year view, I believe this is the way to go."

Sanderson said he would not rule out negotiating with BSkyB, which has put a counter deal to racecourses with its NewAttheraces partner Arena Leisure.

 

Saratoga slots ring
As reported by The Nevada Appeal

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Tucked amid the wooded outskirts of this bucolic, upstate city of Victorian architecture and historic spas, a 63-year-old harness racing track is experiencing a renaissance.

Saratoga Gaming and Raceway's stables are full and winner's shares have more than tripled in recent months, but racing has little to do with the track's quick comeback from the brink of a long, slow death. The true catalyst is a horse of an entirely different color: a new $15 million casino jammed with video slot machines, electronic versions of the trademark casino game, made possible in late 2001 by a state law allowing eight race tracks - including Saratoga and Yonkers - to partner with the state in a foray into the lucrative video gaming market.

The Saratoga "Racino," as it's called, has in its first 2 1/2 months of operation all but validated the success predicted for eight New York tracks allowed to open slots casinos under a 2001 state law. In its first 75 days of operation, Saratoga made a profit of nearly $15 million and drew about 50,000 visitors a week, state and track officials said.

Those numbers have track owners, horsemen and politicians alike salivating over the potential windfall that awaits next year, when much larger casinos open at tracks like Yonkers Raceway and Aqueduct in Queens. Almost two-thirds of revenue generated by the slots go to the state for education purposes, with the majority of the remainder going to bolster racing purses.