Arizona Downs To End Summer Season This Weekend

After a month of operation, the horse racing season will come to an abrupt end this weekend at Arizona Downs. The reason for the stop in racing for this year is ongoing issues with out-of-state racing signals for its off-track betting system. Management of the track have told employees and horsemen of the decision. Owners are blaming a fight against a new state law that mandates that any simulcast signal of live racing brought into Arizona from another state “most be offered to each commercial live-racing permittee in the state.” Arizona Downs struggled because, according to the track’s owners “our OTB’s need access to the same robust network of signals that Turf Paradise offers at its OTBs through Monarch Content Management. That’s why we pushed for legislation that would give us fair and equal access.” The new law takes effect August 27th. Turf Paradise and Monarch plan to fight the legislation in federal court. Since opening Memorial Day Weekend, Arizona Downs has attracted more than ten-thousand people to its weekend live racing events. Track owners are confident they will be able to run a full summer season at the track in 2020.