California races coming back to LV

Ralph Siraco

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 9:34 a.m.

The Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association has taken the decisive step in ending the more than eight-month blackout of Nevada's most popular and profitable simulcast signal.

With a majority of the 53-race book membership and the four principal executive members voting unanimously, an agreement to settle the California pari-mutuel race simulcasting blackout was accepted at about 5 p.m. Thursday in the Nassau meeting room at The Mirage.

Now the new compact will be forwarded to Del Mar race course, the next track on the Southern California circuit, for approval and then on to the Thoroughbred Owners of California for their needed consent, and finally to the California Horse Racing Board for its OK.

These sign-offs should move with haste, as all concerned parties in this matter have been in close contact for more than a week now.

The new contract between Nevada and California for the rights to simulcast the Golden State's races and participate in commingled pari-mutuel pools comes with jubilation for the many patient and loyal Nevada race players and fans of California racing.

If all goes smoothly, as expected, the California signal with be up and running for the opening of Del Mar's summer season on Wednesday with a curtain-raising post time of 2 p.m.

The agreement actually encompasses all California race tracks. Unlike the previous agreements, that were on a track-by-track basis, this new arrangement is a blanket pact that has a uniform payment scale for both Northern and Southern California tracks. This new settlement has a sliding scale for rights fees tied directly to the total wagers handle per day in the Silver State.

Although all provisions of the settlement agreement were not made immediately available to the media, as all parties wait for final approvals, some key points of the new contract were announced after the NPMA meeting.

The new contract calls for an uninterrupted signal of all California race meets for one year. That would mean an agreement is already in place for Hollywood Park's next meeting in the fall, that covers this year's Breeders' Cup Day. The Breeders' Cup is to be held at Hollywood Park during the November season.

Also covered is Fairplex Park, after Del Mar in September, Oak Tree at Santa Anita in October, then Hollywood and Santa Anita, which starts the day after Christmas, through the spring/summer Hollywood Park session next year. Of course, in Northern California, all Golden Gate and Bay Meadows meets and the popular fair circuit, that also starts on Wednesday with the Santa Rosa races.

There are a series of one-year deals through 1999. That coincides with the existing multi-year ocntract that was broken at the beginning of Santa Anita and will be presented to the Thoroughbred Owners of California for approval each year.

Close sources indicated that the TOC, which failed to ratify the multi-year deal this year, will sign off of the one-year deals through 1999 as good faith in the new agreement. The TOC has veto power over all California contracts, vested by federal law, and used that power to negate the original multi-year deal that led to the blackout since Santa Anita.

The sliding scale is said to start at a higher percentage than the old level of 3.5 percent for the Southern California signal if the handle numbers return to the levels just before the blackout. Nevada pari-mutuel race books are looking at this new formula to increase the wagering handle in Nevada and provide more overall monies paid and made for both sides.

Another provision of the new deal is a no-cable-TV clause that will allow the NPMA to approve or reject any and all California races on local cable television. The NPMA indicated it had no plans to entertain cable television racing at this time and instead will concentrate on getting patrons back in the books for afternoon racing.

Race books throughout Southern Nevada suffered from the lack of California's racing signals. In addition to no live television were the bookmakers' limits on bets taken for California races and the missed participation of Nevada revenues in the popular bonanza bets of Pick 6 and Pick 9 pools.

It will be 259 days since the blackout with the start of the Hollywood Park fall meet last year on Nov. 6 until the Del Mar signal returns on Wednesday. In addition, 229 days will have passed without the Northern California racing product that was cut off simultaneously with the Santa Anita signal last Dec. 26.

It was a dispute over simulcast fees with Hollywood Park last fall that started what turned out to be a long and sometimes bitter impasse.