Attendance, handle down at Remington

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Attendance and pari-mutuel wagering at the Remington Park thoroughbred meeting was down from a year earlier, following the national trend. <br><br>An average of 2,337 people per

Tuesday, November 27th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Attendance and pari-mutuel wagering at the Remington Park thoroughbred meeting was down from a year earlier, following the national trend.

An average of 2,337 people per day went to the track during the 59-day season. That was a drop of 4.29 percent from the 73-day 2000 meeting.

The handle averaged $120,551 per program, a decrease of 11.47 percent compared with last year.

Dale Day, the track's director of marketing, said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had an effect on the meeting.

``While our attendance was down, it was not down drastically,'' he said. ``However, our fans wagered less on our live product and on incoming simulcasting. That tells us our fans still came to the races, they were just more frugal with their dollars once they were here.''

Pari-mutuel handle on races simulcast at Remington Park was $162,256 per live racing day, down 23.81 percent compared with 2000.

Remington Park also had two live racing programs cut short due to severe storms.

``While those dates were before the national crisis and didn't have an attendance impact, they definitely contributed to lost wagering dollars with 12 scheduled races by the wayside on those dates,'' Day said.

Racing resumes at Remington Park on March 16 with a program of American Quarter Horse trials for the Lazy E Futurity and Derby. That season begins in earnest on April 5 and runs through June 8.