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Three years later, racing returns to Les Bois Park Boise, ID - April 24, 2011 - Three years ago, with Les Bois Park hosting a full summer horse racing season, Dru Hall’s Emmett stables were a lively place. Forty horses kept Hall, the leading trainer at the Ada County racetrack in 2008, plenty busy. But when Les Bois Park went dark in 2009, Hall’s business dried up. In a few weeks, the number of horses dwindled to five, where it remained. “I’ve been struggling just to make a living,” Hall said last week. “I’m feeling lucky to make it through the last two years. “Now there is a light.” Racing is returning to Les Bois Park this summer. And the horses are returning to Hall’s stables. He’s got about 23 in training and another 10 at the Emmett ranch. “I’m going to be able to light up the board right off the wheel,” said Hall, using horse-racing parlance for winning races — and money. Treasure Valley Racing, the new leaseholder at county-owned Les Bois, is targeting July 2 as the opener for a 15-day season with races on Wednesdays and Saturdays, culminating with the Idaho Cup on Aug. 12-13. Simulcasting — betting on races at other tracks — could begin June 1 at the facility’s Turf Club. “We’re calling this our new beginning,” said Mark Buckley, the president of the Idaho Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association (IHBPA), which represents Idaho race horse owners and trainers. HEARD IT BEFORE Racing at the Idaho Expo fairgrounds has been an Ada County soap opera for years, dating to 2002. Mismanagement in the early 2000s led to unsafe track conditions and a revoked liquor license. California-based Capitol Racing ran a quality meet from 2006 to 2008. But saddled with a $200,000-per-year lease from the county and high costs, the operator hemorrhaged money before closing shop before the 2009 season. Then came Idaho Entertainment, which held the lease for 18 months but never ran a single race because of disagreements with horsemen’s groups. Some wondered if the track, which opened in 1970, would ever host racing again. That seemed like the majority opinion in recent months — until a group of locals decided they couldn’t let the industry fade away in Ada County. “We refused to let it die,” said Jim Grigsby, US Bank regional president, a longtime horse owner and one of the investors in Treasure Valley Racing, which secured the lease to Les Bois Park earlier this month. “We want what’s right for this community. Horse racing has an economic impact that ripples through the valley. We didn’t want to have something as valuable as that just die and go away.” Grigsby, Agri Beef CEO Robert Rebholtz, Boise rancher and banker Harry Bettis, and longtime Boise business people and Boise State supporters Larry Williams and Linda Yanke own half of Treasure Valley Racing. The Alabama-based Greene Group owns the other half. On April 11, Ada County auctioned the lease for $75,000 per year plus .25 percent of the live and simulcast handle in excess of $10 million per year. Unlike Idaho Entertainment, which could never reach an agreement with the IHBPA — a condition for getting a license from the state’s racing commission — Treasure Valley Racing quickly signed a contract with the group. Both the lease and the agreement run through September 2016, providing long-term stability for Les Bois racing. Once race dates are finalized, the Idaho State Racing Commission still has to approve the schedule, but that is a mere formality at this point. “We got some real Idaho people that want to see this go,” said Bettis, who is also president of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation. “We’ve got a better rapport with everybody than anybody’s ever had.” Said Buckley: “They are all horsemen. They all know what we need, what the operator needs. It’ll be a great success working together.” Read more: Idaho Statesman |
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