The last place for sports, horse racing, closing, too.
On Monday afternoon, the Off Track Betting Parlor at Lone Star Park was open, and so was the chance to bet on a horse race in Santiago, Chile, a dog race in St. Petersburg, Fla. and a horse race in Australia.
Follow this from the tip sheet: If you need to get your betting fix, run to your local OTB immediately.
By Monday night, Lone Star Park’s betting parlor joined the rest and closed.
Sports currently hangs on the horse. As casinos close all over the nation, including The Vegas Strip, our last crack at betting is “the four-legged.”
Horse racing has been miles behind the leaders in sports for decades, but over the weekend it enjoyed a surge.
The Sport of Kings actually had highlights featured on SportsCenter, Fox Sports, etc. over the weekend. In that time, as people looked for places to go and sports to watch, Off Track Betting parlors saw spikes in attendance.
The coronavirus was horse racing’s chance to gain some of a desperate market. Although the sport has basically become a made-for-TV, and simulcast betting, event, the sport’s window figures to shrink but not close entirely.
Tracks in Indiana, New Mexico, Maryland and others have all shut down horse racing.
On Monday, the attendant working the betting window the Lone Star Park OTB said the crowd was “thin.”
At 12:30 p.m., there were less than 30 people at the OTB. Some of this has to do with this being a low season in the sport. Some of this has to do with the fact that tracks are starting to close. Some of this has to do with the measures taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Officials from Lone Star Park would not directly address the situation. Anyone with a question essentially is pointed to a press release from the park’s owners, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation.
Around the Lone Star Park OTB a few more hand sanitizers were visible. Public service announcements about the proper way to cough were placed at the bar, and restrooms.
As of right now Lone Star Park plans to begin live racing on April 16.
Hard to see this happening.
Officials from the Kentucky Derby have said it does not want to have its race with no fans. Whatever the Derby does will domino the rest of the sport, and every other horse schedule.
The Derby announced on Monday afternoon it will move the premier event in the sport to September. It is the first time since 1945 the race will not be the first Saturday in May.
The Derby is easily the most profitable day of the year for every horse track in America.
If any sport could “keep going” in this time of limited public gatherings, horse racing is your leader. It is the one sport that doesn’t necessarily need fans in the stands.
While sports journalists, and specifically sports TV networks, all starve for new content, horse racing could fill some of the empty schedules.
The UFC, which under president Dana White, remains going, too. It held a full fight card on Saturday night in Brazil with no fans attending.
In Great Britain, horse racing is proceeding behind closed doors at least through the end of the month. The same measures, as well as “temperature” checks for the horse, have been implemented in Australia.
Industry experts said in order to have a horse race, approximately 50 people are required.
Even if people know zero about horses, they want places to go. We crave “things to do,” and now it’s apparent we want sports on TV. An OTB can operate under most city guidelines about public gathering limits.
Horse trainers and horse racing leaders want to take advantage of this opportunity. And they also recognize there is no “right” way to do this, and are all but resigned this is a chance they can’t exploit.
While a few tracks may remain open and OTBs can keep going, it’s not something they feel they can advertise.
Every person in sports is struggling how to juggle acknowledging this global situation while moving forward with what they do. As the NFL is discovering in its free agent period, there is no way to move forward with sports without appearing tone deaf.
Sports has been kicked out of the game, and the only one really “gluing” it together is the horse.
Get to your OTB. Now.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 7:13 PM.
