It is unreasonable to presume that the 2021 Fonner Park meet, which opens Feb. 19, will be anything like 2020. Floating above the pandemic turmoil, in the midst of coast-to-coast racing closures, last year the little Nebraska racetrack became a pari-mutuel oasis for horseplayers seeking action on weekdays normally marginalized in the betting market.
With TVG hungrily airing its races, Fonner handle soared to an average of more than $3 million a day—six times times the norm—which netted headlines and features from media who couldn't find the Platte River if it ran through their newsrooms. The city of Grand Island was suddenly the racing capital of the Great Plains, while names like Armando Martinez, Jake Olesiak, Dakota Wood, Scooter's Boy, and Sleepy Eyes Todd rose to heights of familiarity never anticipated in this lifetime.
Those were heady days, except for the fact that without fans in the stands Fonner Park was fortunate to cover its expenses. Its share of the simulcast handle represented about as much as the track would have received during a normal, healthy season with people in the seats. This year, with racetracks back in action far and wide, Fonner will be returning to its prime directive as a regional weekend entertainment destination with no pretensions to national glory. Going head-to-head with the racing product of New York, California, Florida, and Kentucky tends to lower expectations, even if there lingers a remnant of customer loyalty from the 2020 experience.
"It's simply a reality that the rest of the world has opened up, compared to last spring," said Fonner CEO Chris Kotulak. "They won't be betting on us from Hipodromo de Chile in Santiago, or wherever. Although we have been receiving requests from people to buy Fonner Park swag—t-shirts, caps, anything with the Fonner Park logo—from New York and many other places."
The 2021 Fonner season, which concludes on the first Saturday in May, will be a transitional bridge from the giddy numbers of 2020 to the anticipation of 2022 when casino gambling at the state's racetracks should be in full swing. Enabling legislation was approved nearly 2-to-1 by Nebraska voters last November. For now, Fonner horsemen must be content with a 10% bump in prize money compared to the beginning of the 2020 meet, and stall applications were up over last year's demands.
"The live crowds are our bread and butter," Kotulak said. "We routinely sell out on Saturdays. That's our mission, our obligation to the community for what fans bring to local businesses."
To comply with county health department measures, Fonner management will restrict its seated crowds to 75% of capacity, which will represent about 4,500 or so in a clubhouse reconfigured with 130 fewer tables. There is also socially-distanced foot traffic welcomed on the grandstand ground floor, which also affords access to the track apron and the crisp Nebraska air. As Kotulak spoke, snow covered everything in sight and the temperature hovered around zero degrees.
"Fortunately, it's supposed to be back up to around freezing for our opening weekend," Kotulak said. "The track has been closed for the last few days, which is tough on our horsemen this close to the meet. But the training track has been open. I even saw there were a couple horses getting in works."
Fonner Park's racetrack is part of a fairgrounds complex that serves Hall County and its neighbors in the south central part of Nebraska, about 70 miles north of the Kansas border and 90 miles west of Lincoln, the state capital. In terms of the coronavirus pandemic, through Feb. 10 Hall County (pop. 61,353) has accounted for 6,880 of Nebraska's 195,000 cases and 108 of the state's 2,097 COVID-19 deaths. Last week's county numbers were down to an average of 20 reported cases per day.
"For the last few weeks we've opened our livestock barns to the Central District Health Department, and they are vaccinating about a thousand people a day," Kotulak said.
"It really went rampant here last October and into the first part of November," Kotulak noted. "I think people started to realize it was something very real. There followed a mask mandate, and the numbers tailed off after that."
Kotulak was not spared. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 last fall not long after attending a local function at which masks were scarce.
"It was 28 days after it hit me before I was feeling myself again," Kotulak said. "I've been well since, but I've had friends who've had it linger much longer. It's sad to see.
"Even though the city no longer requires masks, we will have a mask mandate in place for jockeys' room personnel, and for customers when they are not seated or eating," Kotulak said.
And if someone balks at the mask requirement?
"We'll be packed," Kotulak said. "And there will be people eager to step in if someone doesn't want to wear their mask."
Kotulak is not holding out any hopes that the Fonner races will be able to penetrate the heavily populated TVG menu of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as it did in 2020 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He does note, however, that Fonner will continue to be among the tracks with a simulcast signal on the TVG website, and perhaps the goodwill generated from the 2020 experience will ring a bell.
"We'll continue to try and identify ourselves as something unique," Kotulak said, "because there are still a lot of folks out there who I'd describe as Fonner-curious."
