Fonner Park over a million in handle

[ScottJ]

Originally Posted by Kasept

They handled $7,000,000 yesterday.

The Fonner Park handle on the first Monday, according to Chris Kotulak, covered about 4 race purses (local newspaper coverage). I am thrilled that I was wrong, but there are several factors that have worked in Fonner Park's favor including being able to leverage the "only game in town" angle.

On the financials, the Fonner Park take is about 3% of total handle which means an inbound revenue stream of $210,000 from yesterday's $7,000,000 handle. Tuesday's card paid approximately $50,000 in total purses representing a positive return of $160,000. That's the good news.

Now, to be fair, yesterday's handle was augmented by $3,600,000 bet into the Dinsdale Pick-5 mandatory payoff. If that $400,000+ carryover bonanza was not in place, the story would have been different.

In order to support a $50,000 purse-per-day distribution, the track needs a $1,700,000 handle off-track to break even. I hope that they can continue to draw that action.

Quite frankly, I have really liked the Fonner Park product. The races have been competitive, interesting as ever on the bull ring, and loaded with full fields.