Posts Tagged ‘Churchill Downs Inc.’

It was billed as the “Biggest Vegas Qualifier Ever,” but horseplayers who paid $250 to enter Saturday’s TwinSpires.com contest in hopes of getting a berth in the annual National Handicapping Championship might call it the biggest online screw-up since the Churchill Downs-owned wagering platform melted down on Kentucky Derby Day earlier this year.

Midway through Saturday’s 15-race contest, many of the 550 entrants were unable to make their online selections. Instead they got an error message saying “database connection failed; too many connections.” The problem went on for at least five races, and there was no communication from TwinSpires.com to participants. “Obviously, it was not pleasant for the players,” one contestant wrote to the Paulick Report.

Vernon Niven, president of TwinSpires.com and executive vice president of Churchill Downs Inc., told the Paulick Report a decision was made to cancel the contest, refund all entry fees and reschedule the qualifying event as soon as possible. Fifteen berths were scheduled to be awarded for the National Handicapping Championship, to be held in Las Vegas Jan. 23-24. Prize money in that event, sponsored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Daily Racing Form, is expected to be $1 million.

“We had a database failure with the contest engine that overloaded some queues and caused the login process to freeze,” Niven told the Paulick Report. “Not every player was affected but due to the nature of this we had to cancel the contest and will be refunding everyone.”

No wagers were processed incorrectly, according to Niven, although he said the issue also prevented TwinSpires.com telephone operators from placing wagers via telephone. Some TwinSpires customers not involved in the handicapping contest also experienced log-in problems.

“It’s a huge embarrassment for all of us, and we pride ourselves in our contests,” Niven added. “It’s a slap in our players’ faces. We’ll look at who was affected and how they were affected.”

Saturday’s problem, on top of the Derby Day online wagering malfunction, comes from a company that hired a CEO in Bob Evans with a tech-savvy reputation and has a “think tank” division based in California’s Silicon Valley.

“CDI, which promotes itself as racing’s technology company has failed to deliver,” a contest player wrote to the Paulick Report. “I know I’ll be cancelling my account after this and the Derby Day fiasco.”

“We do pride ourselves on having an outstanding technology team and are working on this as best we can,” Niven said. “We did have problems on Derby Day 2008. That was a different issue – a wagering platform problem. We fixed that issue, as evidenced by Breeders’ Cup Day. This was a different issue. It is one of those things that our guys missed. It was a programming error on our part having to do with database queries that allowed our queues to overflow.

“Our players should not have to worry about that. We are contacting our players to let them know that we apologize and that we will be refunding them within 24 hours.”

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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Bob Evans, president and chief executive officer of Churchill Downs Inc., said during a Friday morning press conference at the company’s flagship track in Louisville, Ky., that the CDI board of directors discussed the possibility of reducing the field size of the Kentucky Derby during a regularly scheduled meeting in New Orleans last week.

The Derby’s maximum field size of 20 is under scrutiny in the wake of the death of the filly Eight Belles in last year’s Derby, even though her fatal injuries occurred after the finish and apparently were unrelated to the number of runners or trouble she may have encountered in the race. The Derby traditionally has the largest field of any race in the United States. No Derby starter has fallen during the running of the race since 1970, when Holy Land clipped heels and fell going into the far turn.

By contrast, Breeders’ Cup fields are limited to 14 starters.

Maximum field size of 14 horses and the prohibition of fillies running against males were considerations in an original discussion document circulated by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to industry leaders who formed what ultimately came to be known as the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance.

Field size or sex limitations were not part of the final recommendations of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance Pledge, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Evans said CDI has devoted a great deal of time and resources to examine a wide range of safety issues since the death of Eight Belles and has adopted all of the safety recommendations made by committees formed earlier this year by the Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The CDI board discussed the reduction of the field size, Evans said, though he gave no indication whether a change will be made. “For now, it’s the way it’s always been,” he said. Nominations to the Triple Crown races, including the Derby, state that the size of the Derby can be “up to 20 horses.”

A reduction in field size might not be greeted favorably by horse owners and trainers who throughout the winter and spring closely follow whether their 3-year-olds are in the leading 20 contenders, based on money earned in graded or group stakes races. Churchill recently announced a marketing agreement with Kempton racecourse in England that will guarantee one spot in the Derby field to the winner of the Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack, on March 18.

Handle on the Derby would also decline in the event of a reduction in the field size. Evans said Churchill has researched Derby handle in relationship to field size but would not say how much handle might fall. A reduction from 20 to 14 starters would also cost Churchill Downs $300,000 in lost entry and starting fees ($25,000 to enter and $25,000 to start).

Evans discussed the Derby field size and other safety measures following a media briefing announcing that Oaks and Derby ticket prices, with a few exceptions, would be frozen in 2009. “Our slowing economy is having a pronounced effect, and many of our customers have been affected in various ways as well,” Evans said. “Although the Kentucky Derby occupies an elite spot in the world of sports and tickets are typically in high demand, we want to keep our price points at the same level to help our customers in this challenging economic climate.” Click here to read more about the ticket price freeze.

The only exceptions will be scheduled price increases in the 30-year personal seat license program, which are coming off a three-year price freeze; some luxury suites and Marquee Village accommodations; and reserved seats in the infield.

Churchill Downs is also offering the opportunity for on-track customers to buy Derby reserved seats in a sweepstakes running each day from tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 22) through Nov. 29. Individuals whose names are drawn will be eligible to buy two Derby tickets ranging in price from $88 to $207. (Derby tickets range in price from $88 for infield reserved seats to $693 on millionaire’s row.) One thousand of the tracks 55,000 seats are being offered in the sweepstakes. For more details, click here.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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Richard Duchossois, who became the largest shareholder in Churchill Downs Inc. when his wholly owned Arlington Park racetrack was merged with Churchill in September 2000, has been steadily adding to his holdings over the last 10 months. In September alone, the Chicago industrialist has purchased 17,296 shares of CDI.

As part of the original agreement to merge Arlington into Churchill, Duchossois Industries received 3,150,000 shares of CDI and had a right to receive another 1,250,000 shares.

Last November, Duchossois bought nearly 15,000 additional shares in the $49-$50 per share range. In December he bought approximately 25,000 in the $52 range. In March he purchased 69,000 at prices between $45-$47 per share. In August he bought 29,000 shares, about a third of them at $37 per share and the rest around $43.

Churchill stock (CHDN) closed at $50.48 per share on Friday.

The only other major insider trading transactions of CDI stock in the last year was the sale of 15,931 shares by CEO Bob Evans.

Churchill officials are hoping the Kentucky legislature passes legislation permitting racetracks in the state to add slot machines as several other racing states have done, including to the north and West Virginia to the east. Pro-slots legislator Greg Stumbo (formerly the state’s attorney general) said recently he will mount a challenge to be Kentucky’s speaker of the house, a position currently held by Jody Richards, who has fallen into disfavor with many in the horse industry because he blocked a casino bill earlier this year.

The company has had some difficulties in 2008 over contract negotiations with horsemen at CDI-owned Calder in Florida and its flagship track in Louisville, Ky. Purse cuts resulted at both tracks. It will be adding slot machines at Calder after a local referendum was approved, and its other track, Fair Grounds, will be offering record purses at its upcoming meeting, thanks to slot machine revenue.