July 28, 2010 – Manor Downs is out of the pari-mutuel racing business – at least for now. The track in Manor, east of Austin, closed its 2010 live season April 18, ended simulcasting on July 25 and has not applied for race dates in 2011.
"We don’t plan on racing next year, at least not at this time," said general manager and CEO Howard Phillips. "We have to look at what opportunities come along. We had considered becoming a training facility, but I don’t think there’s enough horses in Texas anymore to support a training facility at Retama Park and at Manor Downs.
That does not mean that Manor is permanently out of the racing business.
"The track is not going away," Phillips said. "We have closed for pari-mutuel racing and simulcasting, but we’ve got a big investment here. The track is still here, the kitchen is here, the Turf Club is here, and we’re not just going to let the place go to seed. Right now, it just makes more business sense to get off the front lines and go to the sidelines."
Manor Downs has long been a starting point for future stars in Quarter Horse racing. World champions Stolis Winner, Oak Tree Special and Dashing Folly each broke their maidens at the track, where Dashing Folly also won her first two races – her trial and the final of the $96,035 Manor Downs Maiden Allowance – on her way to her undefeated season as the 1996 world champion.
Equisect™ - A natural fly spray that really works! For use on horses, ponies, dogs and cats. Proven to outperform other leading natural fly sprays. Water based, alcohol free formula. Equisect is a trademark of Farnam Companies, Inc.
Handling its first bets in 1990, Manor Downs was the second Texas track to conduct pari-mutuel racing after Texas voters in 1987 opted to legalize wagering on horse races. (G. Rollie White Downs in Brady was the first Texas track since the 1930s to take legal bets, in December 1989.) Although the track since the 1970s had been a well-established stop on the nonpari-mutuel circuit, Manor Downs prior to pari-mutuel wagering probably was as well-known for its non-racing ventures, including as a concert venue for major acts such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid. (Even Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who at the time was married to native Texan Jerry Hall, once spent a day at Manor’s races.)
Manor Downs this year conducted 124 races over 14 days of live racing, beginning March 6. The races drew 797 starters making 1,134 starts for $1,481,240 in total purses, and the track handled $837,224 on those races. In 2009, Manor conducted 157 races over 18 days, with 938 starters making 1,431 starts for $1,877,040 in purses, while the track handled $1,154,140.
"We’re down 40 percent since 2008," Phillips said. "We lost close to $1 million this year. You have to look at the cash flow, and we finally had to say we’re going to stop until something changes, until the economics change in our favor.
"My concern is that the neighboring states of New Mexico, Louisiana and Oklahoma all have slot machines at the racetracks, and a portion of that money got dedicated to purses," he continued. "Their purses went way high, really big, and our horses and horsemen went over there to race. Now breeders have started locating over there, and most recently, stallions and broodmares have moved over there. They’re sucking the horse industry out of Texas into our neighboring states. And the worst part about it is they’re doing it with Texas money. Texas citizens are driving across the border and are supplying 90 percent of the gaming activity over in those states. I feel like I’m being shot with my own bullets." BY RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN