[lonestarracefan]

Bud,

In the past, I played the So Cal Tracks, Oaklawn, Fair Grounds, and just started to play Evangeline some (mostly on-line, when Texas Residents could).
To me, Evangeline is the only LA track that has used casino money to improve their track and their quality of racing there.

LA Downs was my favorite track until Lone Star opened. Me and my father would catch the bus ride to LA Downs a dozen times during that meet. I learned to handicap playing the old LA Downs. After going to LA Downs, a few years ago, the new racino LA Downs. Great new digs, great restaurants, but the quality of racing, meh. It seemed to me, that horses was a good excuse to build a kick ass casino. I got the same vibe from Remington Park, at least at Remington that was more people interested in the horses than one armed bandits.

I have always been afraid, even when Magna owned LSP, that if Texas ever passed slots that we wouldn't see the improvement racing there, just the same lower level claiming horses running for bigger purses, which is norm for most of these Racinos. Oaklawn & Evangeline being the exceptions.

Texas Racing Commission - under Bush & Perry, the Commission has too many Commissioners from Central Texas. The Commission should have never let Out of State Ownership happen. They should have never allowed the original sell to Magna, even before these guys.
Local Magna Management were competent people, they actually cared about the racing here, one them actually has a high position with Churchill Downs now.
I ran a Horse Racing Blog (2004-2009) , I had series of posts, what we need to improve the racing @ LSP and Texas in general. Two of my suggestions were starting the meet earlier so the LS Derby could be a Triple Crown Prep, that the date between KY Derby and Preakness made no sense and running horses here in July, also made no sense, for horses and the attendance. Also they need to move the QH meet and run split thoroughbred meet, similar to Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.

My proposal, Lone Star running 1st weekend March to the Sunday after Belmont Stakes and 1st Weekend in Sept to the Sunday after the Breeders Cup.

The executives at LSP read my series of posts, next time I was at the track, their PR guy approached me, told me that the track president/gm wanted to talk to me. His name escapes me now, his last name started with an S, he told me a lot of my assessments and suggestions were dead on, that he had been trying to move up the start of the meet since he got there, but kept being denied because of Sam Houston. He agreed that LS Derby needed to moved up. He liked my idea of the split meet, but the Commission and the TQHA folks wouldn't go for it.
When I asked him why would the Commission favor their Tier II track over their Tier I track? All he would say is look at the make up of the Commission. At that time, the Commission had one Equine Vet from North Texas (Prosper) and super majority from Central Texas, several from Houston itself.

With the current ownership, slots wouldn't help that track, when their 1st move was to get rid of LS Million Day and LS Million Preview Day [2nd & 3rd biggest attended and wagered days of the meet] and most of those Stakes races and add more concerts. I complained so much about this on Facebook and Twitter that they blocked me.