Sub-freezing temps, a slight breeze, and a dusting of snow seemed to somehow add to the live racing ambience at Batavia Downs as the track opened on Monday for its third consecutive winter racing season.
Winter racing has its disadvantages and advantages, Don Hoover, director of live racing at Batavia Downs, told The Batavian prior to Monday's first post time at 3 p.m.
The obvious disadvantage is adverse weather.
"It has its own challenges because from time to time, you're on edge, whether you're going to have to cancel the races or not, depending on weather, and that's something that you need to do in a timely manner to avert having many of the people ship in and be caught in bad weather," Hoover said.
On the plus side, racing fans around the country have few other options if they want to play the ponies remotely.
"We have lost much less competition in the simulcast area," Hoover said. "Today, for example, only three or four tracks are racing nationwide, and that will afford us, hopefully, a very, very substantial handle. Last year, we went over half a million dollars three times, which was unheard of in the era since OTB has owned the racetrack."
While the winter racing crowd is small at the track — and cozy in the warm clubhouse with food and beverages available — winter racing, Hoover said, has helped lift the profile of Batavia Downs for race fans across the country.
Hoover said there is also an advantage to winter racing for the horsemen.
"Because it's a Western New York circuit where typically they race in Buffalo and Batavia, but with Buffalo being much closer to the lake than we are, Buffalo opted not to race in January and February a couple of years back," Hoover said. "In an agreement with the horsemen, we were able to pick up those dates. It keeps them where there's one month off out of 12. It keeps them from shipping to continue to ply their trade."
This year marks the 85th year since harness racing started at Batavia Downs, but since some seasons were missed over the decades, Hoover estimates its actually the 79th year of live racing at the track.
"As everyone's well aware, there have been many, many changes in the landscape of racing over the last 50 years," Hoover said. "We don't get as many on-track customers as we used to because of the availability of wagering from the comfort of your home, your phone, and even your car. There's also been a proliferation of casino gambling in the state, so the picture is different. But the good thing about it is that we still have racing purses that are such that people can make a good living."
There is still clearly an interest in live racing, which the total handle live racing generates proves, Hoover said.
"The one thing that we would like to see happen, and we hope it can happen, is to raise the on-track handle and the on-track attendance here at Batavia Downs," Hoover said. "They (the Western Regional OTB board) put money into racing. They renovated the clubhouse recently. Many tracks in the state don't even have an open clubhouse. So we try to draw people here, and that's one of our goals."
UPDATE: Don Hoover reports that the opening day of the 15-day winter meet was a success. He states, "As compared to last year’s opening day we showed an increase in both live and total handle. The live handle was $7,330 yesterday as compared to $6,803 last year ( a 7.7% increase), and the total handle was $465,558 as compared to $390,922 ( a 19% increase) and was the 4th highest handle since WROTB acquired Batavia Downs."
Photos by Howard Owens
