If you have ever wondered why Mine That Bird’s owners paid $400,000 to buy a little gelding that originally cost $9,500 at auction, the answer is simple: slot machines, and the revenue they produce for purses.
Yesterday, trainer Chip Woolley explained that Mine That Bird never would have left Canada to run in the Triple Crown if a racino had not been built at his home track of Sunland Park in New Mexico, and he urged New York to finally complete the long-delayed VLT casino at Aqueduct.
“I know from experience I wouldn’t be here without slots, because in New Mexico we were on our last leg before we got slot machines passed there,” Woolley said. “The [$800,000] Sunland Derby is the direct result of slot machines, and we purchased this horse specifically for the Sunland Derby.
“Horse racing is facing some very tough times all around the country,” Woolley said. “In the next year you’ve got a chance of losing maybe 20 percent of the racetracks around the country. Places like Hollywood Park, Golden Gate and Churchill Downs are all in serious trouble.
“[New York] is probably surviving better than most in the economic times of a track that doesn’t have them. But they really need them. [The revenue] would be a great windfall to the state, much less the horsemen and the racetracks themselves.”