By Bill Finley
In 2020, America discovered Fonner Park in Grand Island, Nebraska.
With COVID-19 raging, Fonner was one of a handful of tracks able to soldier on in the months of March, April and May, producing handle numbers that shattered anything they had done before. Jockeys, trainers and horses who had been toiling in obscurity for years were thrust front and center, their every move covered by TVG. Fonner was a feel-good story at a time when those were in short supply.
The little track is back. Fonner's 2021 meet begins Friday, but it won't be anything like last year. While the coronavirus is still a serious problem, most racetracks are running, so there are no openings on the simulcast schedule for Fonner to take advantage of and the competition from places like Gulfstream, Aqueduct and Santa Anita means that Fonner's handle will dwindle back into the low six figures. They're back to running a Friday-through-Sunday schedule and know that their season in the spotlight is a thing of the past.
“In 2020, we knew there was something very specific going on because of COVID,” said Fonner CEO Chris Kotulak. “We were running on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at a time when there were just five racetracks in the country running. During the week, it was just us and Will Rogers Downs. Of course, that isn't the case anymore. On top of that there are quite a few other sporting events and other wagering opportunities now. Vegas is back. Sports betting is certainly more profound than it was a year ago. The rest of the world has other betting options now so I'm not sure that anybody in Paris or Santiago, Chile, will be betting on us like they were last year.”
Not that there will be a pall over this opener. It's just that Fonner will go to back to being what it always was, a local track that has learned how to survive without bells, whistles, million-dollar handles or graded stakes. It's the people of Nebraska that have made Fonner special, something out of a different and better era for the sport. Pre-pandemic, the on-track crowds were so healthy that they sold out all the seats in the grandstand on Saturdays. This year, the fans will be allowed back, but, because of COVID-19, Fonner plans to limit the crowd to 75% of capacity. That will allow them to seat about 4,000 fans.
“These people love their horse racing and they love to have a good time in the afternoon,” Kotulak said. “We're here to give them what they want. They are rabidly eager to return.”
Kotulak said that a mask mandate will be strictly enforced and that anyone who refuses to wear one will be asked to leave. It's personal for him. In October, both he and his wife tested positive for the virus.
“It knocked me out for almost an entire month,” he said. “I had tremendous fatigue and body aches, a little bit of a headache. I'm over it, but that doesn't mean I am invincible. I want everybody else to go by that same mantra.”
Some things will be the same from last year. Jake Olesiak will be back to defend his riding title. The Isai Gonzalez barn and the Kelli Martinez barn will likely battle it out for leading trainer. And Fonner, which added several horizontal wagers last year to satisfy demand, will be back with a betting menu that includes Pick Fours and Pick Fives.
“We're going to resume as if there was no change at all in our presentation,” Kotulak said. “That means offering all of the additional Pick Four and Pick Five wagers we added to our wagering menu last year. When we did that, people just gobbled them up.”
While Kotulak understands that handle will fall dramatically at the upcoming meet, he's hopeful that at least some of the horseplayers who discovered Fonner last year liked it enough that they will be back for more.
“People realized that Fonner Park is a charming little gem of racing in the United States,” he said. “There were people who had never seen racing from Fonner Park before and I think many of them were pleasantly surprised. How many Thoroughbred tracks are there that conduct racing over a five-eighths of a mile racetrack? That was new for a lot of people and I think they liked that up close, tight action that happens on a five-eighths racetrack.”
This year's meet will run through Kentucky Derby Day, May 1. The highlight will once again be the April 24, $75,000 Bosselman Pump & Pantry/Gus Fonner S. It was won last year by Sleepy Eyes Todd (Paddy O'Prado), who will attempt to become the first horse in history to pull off the Bosselman–Saudi Cup double.
It's easy to be optimistic about Fonner's future. In the November election, Nebraskans voted to allow the state's racetracks to open up casinos. Fonner has yet to select a company it will partner with to build the casino, but Kotulak said expectations are that the casino will be up and running toward the end of this year. That will mean that the track's future is guaranteed and that the 2022 meet will feature a healthy bump in purses. Kotulak expects they will double.
That won't make Fonner Park Santa Anita Park or anything close to it, but that's OK. Fonner has never tried to be something that it's not.
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