Billings, MT - May 13,
2011 - On the final day
of the 2010 horse-racing
meet at MetraPark’s
Yellowstone Downs last
September, over 5,000
spectators were gathered
in the grandstand or
lining the track’s rails
on the sunny afternoon.
They cheered throughout
a 12-race card that
included full fields of
thoroughbreds, featured
Montana’s richest race
of the season — a
$34,700 Quarter Horse
Futurity — and generated
a betting handle
approaching $110,000.
It was horse racing at
its best, and the
diehard fans at the
Billings track deserve
to have many more
exciting days like that
at the races.
Yellowstone Downs is
scheduled for another
eight-day race meet in
2011, covering four
weekends in late August
and September. That’s
great news, but the
beleaguered Sport of
Kings is in serious
distress in other parts
of the state.
Great Falls and Missoula
couldn’t come up with
track operators and have
already said so long to
racing for at least this
summer.
The odds are that
Kalispell will likely
join them on the
sideline for this year,
leaving the state with
just 12 live racing days
and two tracks — Miles
City and Billings —
running in 2011.
When Ryan Sherman of
Billings took over as
executive secretary of
the Montana Board of
Horse Racing in 2008, he
said his main objective
was to revitalize one of
the state’s oldest
industries and keep the
spectacle of racing from
fading away.
He is still working
tirelessly to achieve
that goal.
“I’m looking forward to
the day when maybe I can
sleep a little bit,”
Sherman said last week.
While the challenges are
many, horse racing
remains a popular
attraction across the
state.
The industry has made
some progress on the
business side in recent
years, with the
development of fantasy
sports betting games and
advance deposit wagering
as added sources of
funding to help the
sport grow.
Still, some major issue
always seems to pop up
during the offseason to
once again threaten
racing’s future.
Read More:
Billings Gazette
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