Currently the following tracks are racing Updated April 11th:
US Tracks
Fonner Park - season ends May 4th
Tampa Bay Downs - season ends May 3rd
Oaklawn Park - season ends May 2nd
Gulfstream Park - season is year long
Los Alamitos Quarter horses - season is year long
Remington Park Quarter horses - season ends May 30th
Will Rogers - season ends May 23rd
There is no racing going on in Canada, and no harness racing going on in North America
Foreign Tracks
Australia both Thoroughbreds and Harness are continuing to race
Takeout rates: WPS 16.8% ExQuinDD 24.8% SupP3P4 26.3% Tri 27.8%
Sweden Harness racing
Takeout rates: WPS 15% QuinEx 20% Double 25% Tri 30% V75 35%
Hong Kong Thoroughbred Racing
Takeout rates: WPQuinOmni 17.5% Tri 25%
Japan Thoroughbred Racing
Takeout rates: WP 20% P3P4 27% All Other 25%
Now the hard part. When will racing begin again?:
UK Racing is suspended until at least the end of April.
Irish Racing is suspended until at least May 4th.
South African Racing is suspended until at least April 16th. Still no word, and with no entries, expect a further delay.
Singapore Racing is suspended at least until May 4th
France Racing is suspended until at least April 15th, but that date is expected to extended. No update.
South Korea is slated to return April 18th. No update.
New Zealand is suspended to at least least April 22nd No update
North American racing is a complete guessing game. Even though racing without the presence of crowds seems workable, many tracks survive because of gaming revenues. Until casinos are back
in business, horse racing may be further delayed in states like Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana and Ohio. Those states are currently hot spots as far as the virus goes. The bright side is that states definitely want casinos back as quickly as possible because of the revenues casinos generate, but how realistic is it to open up slots and table games with social distancing going on?
Horsemen have made their case as well. The longer this goes on, the more the bills (unpaid?) mount, and the longer horses will need to train to get into horse racing shape if they are taken out of training for financial reasons.
California should be the first to initiate a new A meet (Los Alamitos is currently running). They are not dependent on casino revenues in California. If a handful of tracks open up in the rest of
the US, they might actually attract enough wagering dollars to pay for the show, but too many tracks running will make it impossible for casino dependent tracks to operate successfully. Once the curve flatten look for A racing to begin at Los Alamitos, Del Mar or Santa Anita. Cal Expo's spring meet has officially been cancelled.
Ontario racing is trickier as funds are already allotted to horse racing in lieu of gaming revenues, as tracks don't need slots to race. Right now, Ontario is in strict lock down, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Fort Erie is planning to open up their backstretch as scheduled on April 12th and they still believe they will be racing live late May. Woodbine looks like they won't start up until at least the middle of June, maybe early July, but that is a fluid situation. Late May might be an achievable date for Ontario harness racing. More than likely, horse racing will happen in Ontario before it happens in British Columbia and Alberta, but once racing does start up in Ontario, the other provinces will be pressured to start up shortly thereafter.
