There are a lot of racetracks out there steep in double digit declines right now, or declines out-pacing the industry's current situation (around -8% or so). It's a ripple effect. It's also people leaving the game etc... a combination of factors.
When Monmouth is posting the numbers they're posting, they are yanking money here or there from a lot of racetracks. Even if it's just worth 20k per race at a place like Louisiana Downs, Lone Star or Arlington, that adds-up fast. For example, at LAD, 20k / race * 9 races = 180k... or about 7-12% of our average handle. That's significant for a place like here. Now, our product is not very good right now, so it's compounded, but that's a result of the ripple effect and overall state of the game.
Monmouth is running far less races that are unattractive (small fields), so last year while players might look elsewhere here or there, now they're not. A place like LAD can't find "spots" anymore like it used to. When CD closes, we'll see what happens, as that'll free-up a large amount of coin. But in general, the national simulcast landscape has changed.
Is this necessarily a bad thing? This is the market dictating what the market wants, so we'll see what the long term impact is, both in terms of short-term handle and business performance, but also industry trends regarding race dates / races.
As for Belmont... Big Sandy is immune to a lot of things... they have a powerful brand, the most powerful brand in the country, which is why a lot have wrote about how despite the smaller fields / purses etc., they're still out-handling MTH. So using them as a gauge for anything besides the overall industry is pointless.
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