By Bill Finley
Take a quick glance at the opening day card at Delta Downs and it might seem like nothing has changed. The fields for Tuesday's races are full, perennial leading trainer Karl Broberg has seven entered and the feature is a $60,000 stakes for Louisiana-breds that has attracted horses from the stables of Tom Amoss and Steve Asmussen.
But this will be a meet unlike any other at the track that sits just a few miles east of the Texas-Louisiana border. Delta Downs was directly in the path of Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm with winds reaching 150 miles per hour that all but tore the place apart when it hit land on Aug. 27. Since then, there's been a full-court press to get the track ready for a delayed opening day of a meet that will be conducted during the day.
“There has been a lot of last-minute stuff being done, almost 24 hours a day. There's been a rush to get ready to race,” said the track's announcer Don Stevens.
In the days before Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana, Delta Downs was finishing up its Quarter Horse meet, which ended Aug. 22. That gave the track six weeks to prepare for a Thoroughbred meet set to begin Oct. 3. But Laura hit the area with such severity that it was clear the meet could not open on time.
“There's just a lot of damage and it's everywhere,” Delta's Director of Racing Operations Chris Warren said the day after the hurricane hit.
While the barns held up well during the storm, ensuring that the horses still on the grounds stayed safe, the rest of the facility didn't fare nearly as well. The tote board was demolished, the starting gates were turned over and so severely damaged they had to be replaced and the outside rail was torn apart. The patrol towers were also badly damaged and also had to be replaced. The wiring for the track's lights was wrecked.
“The light towers were wired above the ground,” Stevens said. “There are wires from pole to pole and they were built in 1973. It destroyed so much of infrastructure. We couldn't repair them, they were prehistoric. We just pulled them out of the ground and said we will race during the day.”
It could have been worse. Laura was one of five hurricanes to hit Louisiana this year, but the only one that produced significant damage to the track.
The daytime cards will be the biggest change for a track that liked to call itself “America's Favorite Nighttime Track.” The handle figures weren't huge, but Delta had a following and it, more often that not, outhandled the competition it ran up against when racing Wednesday through Saturday nights.
With lights unavailable, management had to figure out a way to maximize handle. Rather than trying to compete against the simulcast signals from racing's top tracks, they settled on a new format, racing Mondays through Thursdays with a 12:55 CT first post. The new schedule will go into effect next week. It is a spot on the calendar where there will not be much competition for the wagering dollar.
“The Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays should be good,” Warren said. “On Thursdays there is a lot of competition. It will probably be so-so on that day. If we can do as well as last year I'll be happy. I'm hoping we won't be down any, but really don't know what to expect.”
“I have talked to a lot of the jockeys and they are alle excited,” Stevens said. “They say the track is in great shape. Most of them, 80 or 90%, are excited about day racing because now they can get to sleep at night. Racing during the day will really be strange and so will the Mondays through Thursdays. I've never worked at a racetrack and had weekends off.”
Delta has not set a timetable for when it will repair the lights and return to nighttime racing, but could do so for its summer Quarter Horse meet, run at a time where temperatures soar during the day.
With horses that race on the Delta-Evangeline Downs circuit having nowhere to run since Evangeline ended its meet Aug. 29, the first few Delta cards will consist of nearly all full fields. Ninety-six horses have been entered for opening day and 98 for the following day.
All the dates will be made up. The 84-day meet, originally scheduled to conclude Feb. 27, has been extended to Apr. 16.
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