No Days Of Real Sport This Year

WAITSBURG - Following the announcement that there will be no pari-mutuel horseracing this year in Waitsburg, Dayton and Walla Walla, the board of the Days of Real Sport has cancelled its annual May racing event for 2011.

But DRS directors said they hope it will only be a temporary interruption of a near century-old Waitsburg tradition as they and the other Class C tracks try to change the way their racing events are funded, paving the way for a resumption of the sport in 2012.

The Dayton Days board meets at 6:30 p. m. on Thursday at the General Store to decide on its 2011 weekend racing event.

Dayton Days Racing Manager and Treasurer Melissa Hansen, who attended the Waitsburg meeting said she will recommend Dayton also go dark for a year and regroup for next year.

The Washington State Horseracing Commission decided last Thursday to give only six days of racing to the four-track Class C "Bush" circuit, with all of those days going to Sun Downs in Kennewick.

A representative from the state commission said it wasn't an easy decision.

" Nobody feels worse than the commissioners themselves, but they had no choice," said Doug Moore, the commission's deputy secretary. "They want to keep horseracing alive, but they're kind of hamstrung this year."

Moore said the commission's fund balance, which has taken a serious hit from the bad economy and the growing popularity of other forms of gambling, only allowed for the six days of Class C racing.

The commission decided to provide those days to the Tri-Cities Horseracing Association in Kennewick because of that facility's significant, recent investment in its track, including a new rail and barn estimated at $150,000 and paid for with state grants, he said.

The announcement came as a disappointment to many in the region's horseracing community, saying it will have a proportionately bigger impact on smaller communities than on a metropolis like the Tri- Cities, which has plenty of other events and activities throughout the year.

"It's going to be hard for us," said Melissa Hansen, Dayton Days racing manager and treasurer. "The Tri-Cities has so many other things to offset that loss that we don't. I'm very disappointed."

On Saturday morning, the DRS board gathered to make the tough call whether to have a weekend event without the races, but decided in the end that it would be better to save its financial reserves for a possible resumption next year.

"We are not very good at doing anything else," DRS President Dan McKinley said during the meeting, referring to the possibility of organiz- ing an alternative sporting attraction just to keep the DRS date on everyone's May calendar.

"We'll go dark for a year," he said. "I'm optimistic we can get this changed."

Those familiar with the history of the Days of Real Sport said it isn't the first time the racing event, which includes a popular Main Street parade, has been skipped for a year or more, referring to times it was tabled during World War I, II and in 1957.

But changes will have to be made in state law and in the way racing is funded to pave the way for any continuation next year.

The first step will be an easy one. Others will be tougher.

Senator Mike Hewitt (RWalla Walla), has already introduced legislation in Olympia that would lift a requirement for tracks to run at least five consecutive years to qualify for the commission's race dates so the one-year interruption will not disqualify them for resuming racing next year.

Much of the money that subsidizes the Class C tracks comes from Emerald Downs, whose handle was down last year. Income from betting on horse racing has taken a backseat to other types of wagering such as the state lottery, casino gambling and others.

In 1988, 78 cents out of every legally gambled dollar was spent on horseracing. Last year, it was less than a cent, Moore said.

"The whole mess is because of the handle," he said. "It's an unfortunate sign of the times."

Waitsburg race horse owner and trainer Bill Hoff said the Class C tracks now get one tenth of 1 percent from the Emerald Downs handle, which totaled almost $100 million in 2010. It's used exclusively for purse money and the cost of sending state regulators. Those expenses were $15,800 per racing day last year.

Hoff has proposed to increase the Bush circuit's portion to 1 percent, arguing that while betting was down for Emerald Downs, it actually increased on the Class C tracks last year. The commission has rejected his proposal, but Hoff and others believe that a concerted lobbying effort from the "Bush" communities, showing the importance of racing here, could put pressure on legislators and the governor to generate more funding for the Eastern Washington tracks.

Those who attended the DRS board meeting also said they want to pursue legislation that would give the tracks here more flexibility in closing state funding gaps for racing with private-sector contributions.

Moore said the commissioners are deeply sympathetic to the plight of the horseracing community in the Touchet Valley and Walla Walla. They are hoping owners, trainers, jockeys and others will take advantage of the six days in Kennwick, then hang on this year while new ways of underwriting the cost of Class C racing are explored.

His hope is that the economy will pick up, and Emerald Downs' efforts to bring larger crowds to races there will pay off, he said.

The DRS board has about $31,000 in the bank. A small part of these funds would need to be used to retain the racing infrastructure, but most can be reserved for 2012, McKinley said.

Those around the table Saturday said horseracing in Waitsburg and Dayton is woven tightly into the community's fabric, with some family members coming home to bet in a sport in which they may have little interest otherwise and with service clubs and youth groups relying on track vending to raise funds for their projects.

"People are concerned we won't have races," board member Karen Mohney said. "It's all about tradition."

Rose Engelbrite went even further, expressing concerns that if there's no Days of Real Sport of any kind - even with alternative activities - people may simply take the third week in May off their calendars for good.

But others said there's simply not enough time in the coming months to reinvent Days of Real Sport or come up with an alternative that would justify the expense of buying liability insurance and risk jeopardizing the DRS' current bank reserves.

Horse owners Hoff and Dayton's Lee Ann Literal said they and others in the racing community would probably survive a year's interruption, joining others on the board in saying the coming year's focus should be on securing funding changes for the sport here.