Calder Needs Slot Machine Revenue 

With Gulfstream bringing in slot machines, their purses are going to grow by hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. However, Calder Race Course will not see a dime of the slot machine revenue. Since Gulfstream is only running 90-day races, Calder is still running smaller purses compared to the rest of the country, and that hurts the whole industry even though there are millions of slot machine revenue coming in. 

If Calder doesn’t get slot machine relief, they are going to continue to lose the better horses as they will continue to ship them out of state. With lesser horses running, there will be even smaller purses for them to offer – therefore continuing a vicious cycle that started even before the slot machines came in. The worst thing that could happen is that Churchill Downs, Calder’s parent company, sells the track and/or the land, which is located next to Dolphins Stadium. 

Eddie Plesa, a trainer at Calder said, “I see Gulfstream doing one or two things. Since there's no regulation, and they can open whenever they want, they could run six months, maybe November through April or the first week in May, or they could bankroll all the money they make in the slots and give it away during the three months they run now." 

Calder isn’t worried about them adding more race dates, simply because of the goodwill between the parent companies of the tracks, Churchill and Magna Entertainment. Experts say that if Calder were to get the slot machines as well, they would be able to increase their purses as well – which would stop all the horses from going out of state. While Calder keeps trying to get slot machines, Gulfstream is trying to get racing at night – and others say both need to be focused on getting the horse racer back who isn’t as interested in the slot machines as he is playing the horses.

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