Although the start of the 2020 racing season was put on hold for three and a half months, it hasn’t taken long for Harrah’s Hoosier Park’s 27th year of live harness racing to produce encouraging gains from all facets of its wagering operations.
With that, officials with Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino have announced purses will increase by approximately $35,000 per day, effective Friday, July 31. The increase will be felt throughout the entire purse structure as a result of conservative revenue projections and increased casino, ADW and export revenues.
“After starting off the meet with very cautious purse projections, we are so pleased that our gaming and pari-mutuel revenues are now allowing us to make this very significant purse increase,” Harrah’s Hoosier Park's vice president and general manager of racing Rick Moore noted. “We want to thank all of our partners, most notably the horsemen and racing fans throughout the country that have contributed to our successes to date. I would also like to personally thank ISA President Joe Putnam for working with us to implement this purse increase in such an expeditious manner.”
With a renewed focus on fresh marketing efforts, specialty wagers, full fields and competitive racing, through the first 30 days of the meet at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, all-sources wagering has shown a 21 per cent increase over the previous years’ figures.
“The horsemen have done an outstanding job of providing us with a great racing product,” Moore continued. “The competitive fields have offered outstanding value to horseplayers and the bettors have shown up in full force. All of these factors make it possible for us to proudly announce this purse increase.”
The racing action continues to heat up on the track, as the 2020 crop of Indiana-sired horses recently opened their Indiana Sires Stakes series in impressive fashion. Harrah’s Hoosier Park will host an extended open stakes schedule throughout the 2020 racing season worth nearly a combined $8 million. Harrah’s Hoosier Park’s premier pacing event, the $300,000 Dan Patch Stakes, is slated for Friday, August 14. The 2020 season will be highlighted by the return of the coveted Breeders Crown events on Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31.
With a daily post time of 6:30 pm, live racing will continue to follow a Tuesday through Saturday schedule and be conducted through November 21. For more information on the live racing schedule, please visit www.harrahshoosierpark.com.
(Harrah's Hoosier Park)