By T. D. Thornton
In an era when most racetracks in the mid-Atlantic region are paring race dates from their yearly schedules to reflect the declining number of available horses to fill races, Colonial Downs is an outlier.
Under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the Virginia track announced in August that it plans to increase its race dates to 44 in 2025 after racing 27 programs this year.
On Thursday, by Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, said during a quarterly earnings conference call that he expects the number of race dates at turf-centric Colonial to rise to 50 in 2026.
The reasoning behind the drastic increase in race dates on a circuit that has long struggled with scheduling conflicts has more to do with CDI maximizing its gaming-revenue opportunities than a purely bullish outlook on hosting live racing.
By Virginia law, CDI, which acquired Colonial in 2022, is required to run one race date for every 100 historical horse racing machines (HRMs) that it operates in the state, up to a statutory cap of 5,000 HRMs.
During the Oct. 24 call with investors, Carstanjen said during prepared opening remarks that CDI plans to hit that max cap number by the end of next year, thus the anticipated increase to 50 race dates by 2026.
“By the end of 2025, after we have completed this expansion, we will have 5,000 HRMs deployed, the maximum permitted under the law of Virginia, up from approximately 4,450 machines that we have deployed today,” Carstanjen said.
But it was only at the very end of Thursday's earnings call, when prompted by a question from an investment analyst, that Carstanjen hinted CDI might have an appetite for adding even more race dates-tied to even more HRMs-if the state's legislators saw fit to rewrite the law that caps the gaming machines.
“We do think it's a model that works, and if the state has interest and willingness, we hope to talk to them about more,” Carstanjen said.
“We think from a racing perspective we'd love to see more days run in Virginia over time, and consequently we'd like to see more HRMs deployed over time in order to support that,” Carstanjen said.
“We serve at the discretion of the state,” Carstanjen continued. “Our franchise is a discretionary right given to us by the state and we hope to talk to them about it.
“But right now our focus is on delivering on the promises we've made them so far, and delivering for the people of Virginia and for the state,” Carstanjen said.
“And hopefully, if we prove the value of that model, they'll be willing listeners to talking about improving and doing more in the state. But it's hard to talk about things we don't control, and I don't want to make promises we can't keep,” Carstanjen said.
Colonial's potential increase to 50 dates by 2026 shouldn't come as a sudden surprise.
Carstanjen had disclosed that move in July 2022, also during a quarterly earnings call, when he first outlined publicly that it would be CDI's intent to nearly double its racing dates in Virginia by 2026.
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