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Downs Doing All It Can To Attract Fans

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By RICK HARMON Tribune correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2008

OLDSMAR - In today's bleak economy, finding discretionary money is difficult. That makes the operators at Tampa Bay Downs work twice as hard to attract patrons to the thoroughbred track.

The 83rd Opening Day is scheduled for Saturday, with gates opening at 11 a.m. and first post at 12:25 p.m.

Last year, the Opening Day crowd of 5,943 and the on-track wagering of $563,222 were records for the track. Including simulcasting, the total handle was $3,898,826.11.

Those figures might be hard to match this year, but the track is doing everything it can to make a day at the races enjoyable and affordable.

The $65,000 Lightning City Stakes will highlight the day, and Tampa Bay Downs will offer free grandstand admission and general parking.

"Our biggest challenge will be parking," said Margo Flynn, the track's vice president of marketing and publicity. "We lost two-thirds of our parking lot to the west of the track to road construction."

A new parking lot has opened south of the grandstands, and parking there will be free this year.

"We purchased shuttle carts to ease the burden of getting from the parking lot," Flynn said.

Two new wagers should be enticing. The "High 5" allows bettors to attempt to pick the first five finishers in a race - in exact order - for a minimum $1 bet. If no one wins, the jackpot rolls over to the next race. Two races will be designated "High 5" races each card.

The other new wager is the "Rolling Daily Double." This is an extension of the current daily double, where bettors try to pick the winner of the first and second races. With this bet, there is a daily double in every race - first and second races, second and third races, etc.

"We have reduced our takeout to give back to the racing fans," Flynn said. "We hope this encourages people to take another look at Tampa Bay Downs."

The big news at the track is the Grade III status awarded to the $225,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, to be run on Feb. 14. The addition of the Davis brings the track's graded races to five.

"The grading is very important in the scope of 3-year-old horses," Flynn said. "Horses that want to run in the Kentucky Derby need graded earnings. That said, the prep races leading up to that need to be graded to count. It was always a struggle to attract horses because those earnings didn't count toward the Kentucky Derby. We anticipate to be able to attract that next level of horses that will be looking forward to going to the Triple Crown races."

The other graded stakes races are Endeavour Breeders' Cup (Feb. 14), Tampa Bay Derby (March 14), Florida Oaks (March 14) and Hillsborough Stakes (March 14). All are Grade III races. In all, Tampa Bay Downs will offer $2.7 million in stakes purses.

Rick Harmon can be reached at tampabaystringer@gmail.com.

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