Mike Tatsey, vice chairman of the Montana Board of Horse Racing, along with local race organizers Janis Schoepf and Debbie Cunnington, met Tuesday with the Flathead County commissioners to gauge county support for horse racing.
“You need to sit down and hash out a working agreement,” Commissioner Dale Lauman said. “And I think you can work out a real good relationship. I think [racing] can be successful.”
Local organizers are way ahead of where they were a year ago when they got the horse racing program back on track after a five-year hiatus. Last year Schoepf and Cunnington applied for race dates after the deadline and thus weren’t able to get any financial support from the state.
That will change this year.
The state board recently took over simulcast horse racing when Montana Entertainment’s license expired. A percentage of the simulcast earnings go toward paying the race purse in Kalispell. Scotty’s Bar is the local venue for simulcast racing.
“The state board would be able to put up at least a day’s worth of purses, and we pay for the [jockey] insurance,” Tatsey said.
Rising insurance costs for jockeys was one of the key reasons the county put horse racing out to pasture in 2005.
Ryan Sherman, executive secretary of the state Board of Horse Racing, sent a letter to the commissioners this week, noting the success of last year’s restarted race program at the Northwest Montana Fair.
In two days of racing, more than $103,000 was wagered on 16 races offered.
“That was an average handle of $51,500, one of the best averages for racing in Northwest Montana for many years,” Sherman said.
The board saw a statewide handle of $1.4 million last year, an increase of $421,000 over 2009, thanks in part to the return of live racing on the west side of the state, he said, asking for Flathead County’s support.
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