Mountaineer

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Williams said with no deal in place, horsemen would be charged $15 a day per stall; the Mountaineer HBPA would have to pay $10,000 a day to keep the track open for training; and the horsemen’s group would have to enter into a formal lease for its office space, which is located between the barn area and the racetrack.

That from this article up on Bloodhorse ....

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ute?source=rss


If anyone has witnessed the barn area on the backside of Mountaineer - horsemen should be paid $15 a day per stall for filling them ... that racetrack is first class dump in terms of basically everything.

There was a time a few years ago when they handled surprisingly well, the fields were always full and competitive, the trainers were very easy to gauge, the track had a powerful bias from time to time, and the betting public rarely was on top of anything except form, class, and speed figures.

Some of that still might be true .. but the place is a total dump and the racing is obviously steeply on the decline. Mountaineer will probably never sink far enough to pre-slots Mountaineer again - nor will it ever soar to the 2001 glory year version of Mountaineer again ... but it seems like a pretty good example of why slots and table games aren't all they're cracked up to be.

$15 a day rent to be stabled in that sh!thole is pretty funny.

[2Hot4TV]

We as horseplayers are doomed. They get slots with other gaming and drive the horse owners out of the game. They will reduce the thier operating cost to nothing more than a 7/11 quikie mart.

[Travis Stone]

With slot offerings in surrounding states, the early-bird runners in the slot-fueled-purses race will start to feel the pinch. I still believe eventually everyone will have slots and things will be back to the way they were.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

MTR has both slots and table games - like craps, blackjack, poker, etc.

You knew they wouldn't ever attempt to do anything to benefit the horse players any .. because that's how the industry rolls.

However, you would think that sometime in the last 10 years - they might have made a tiny effort at making the track less of a joke to visit.

From DRF's Inside Post blog archive...

Despite all the "racino" money at Mnr, the back of the green-colored grandstand appears as if it hasn't been painted for decades. It is an eyesore at best; deeply embarrassing at worst. Insiders say racing has dropped lower than whipped-up-on stepchild status in the hierarchy of priorities that rule at the "Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort" and that this place serves as Exhibit A for what happens to the sport when a bottom-line mentality overtakes the combined operation of casino and racing. It's a warning bell for folks in all those other states where racing, oft-subsidized by the casino cash cows, might soon come under siege

If he thinks the grandstand is deeply embarassing ... he should try hanging around in the barn area.

[2MinsToPost]

Before I moved to Florida I was there.

Beulah like