Stacy Cahill is greatly satisfied with the start of the 2012 season at Scioto Downs.
“We’ve just implemented some huge purse increases in various classes,” says the track’s general manager. “You’re already seeing them in the purse amounts. This is a reward to owners and horsemen for their loyal support of Scioto Downs through some very difficult years. We look forward to a very bright and exciting future at Scioto.”
Cahill also looks forward to a holiday card on Wednesday that will get underway at 1:00 p.m. and will feature four divisions of Ohio Sires Stakes for freshmen.
“Not only do we have the sires stakes horses, but we also have a strong supporting card with increased purses across the board,” she says.
The only glitch in the 2012 Scioto meet was caused recently by Mother Nature when she brewed up unseasonably hot weather and catastrophic storms last week. Cahill says that the track is ready for the holiday matinee card and for the Thursday-Friday-Saturday evening programs which follow.
“I’m very happy that we had nearly 10,000 people at Scioto Downs two Saturday nights ago,” she continues. “They were actually roaring, like they used to. This was with no promotion, just good old-fashioned harness racing.”
Scioto’s record attendance is 14,357 set in 1986.
Cahill is also delighted that pari-mutuel handle was up more than 20 per cent in the meet’s first month. She points out that the increase is largely due full and competitive fields. Jason Roth, the first-year racing secretary, is doing a fantastic job at putting together full fields each and every night.
“We’ve had large fields in many of our races and that really jumpstarts the handle,” she says. “The handle on a 10-horse field is significantly more than what you get on a six or seven-horse field and we’ve had a lot of races with full fields."
If the number of qualifying races are any indication, the full fields and increased handle will continue because qualifying days have indeed been busy at Scioto.
“We had 15 qualifiers on Tuesday, 21 last week, and 22 the previous week,” she said. “Those are horses that are being dropped in the box now and they’ll help us continue offering bettors full fields."
The Scioto Downs racino is ending its first month of operation and it attracts a steady flow of gaming customers, day and night. When races are being held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, many of them have found their way to the grandstand or clubhouse.
(Scioto)