North Dakota Horse Park to Revive Racing

AQHA - December 15, 2010 - Horse racing could return next summer to the North Dakota Horse Park. The North Dakota Racing Commission on Tuesday approved four weekends of racing to the track in Fargo: July 22-24 and 29-31, and August 5-7 and 12-14.

The North Dakota Horse Park opened in 2003 but was dormant in 2010.

According to a report by Heath Hotzler in Inforum, which bills itself as “North Dakota’s No. 1 news website,” the Horse Park closed last April due to outstanding debt from 2009 of approximately $150,000 owed to vendors including food and beverage dealers, advertisers, a security firm, a machinery dealer and a photographer. The park as of last year also owed $250,000 to the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp. and $1.4 million to the City of Fargo, which invested $1,477,789 to extend water, sewer and other infrastructure to the Horse Park.

“It’s extremely important (to bring racing back to Fargo),” said NDRC director of racing Winston Satran, as quoted by Hotzler. “It gives a second venue in North Dakota. It allows people who own racehorses in North Dakota to stay in North Dakota for a couple of months between Belcourt and Fargo.”

The racing commission in February will meet with Horse Park officials to determine how many of those race dates the park’s financial condition can handle and how much the commission will allocate for racing at the Park.

North Dakota conducts official American Quarter Horse races at two tracks, Chippewa Downs in Belcourt and the Horse Park in Fargo, directly across the Red River from Moorhead, Minnesota. In 2009, the state’s two sanctioned tracks conducted 21 days of racing for American Quarter Horses, with 15 at the Horse Park and six at Chippewa. The 73 Quarter Horse races drew 176 head making 537 starts for $252,112 in purses. That same year, there were 31 breeders and 54 owners of starters in the state.

The racing commission also approved dates for Chippewa: June 11-12, 18-19 and 25-26; and July 2-4.

“Having all these race dates means quite a bit to the breeders in North Dakota,” said Leon Glasser, president of North Dakota Quarter Horse Racing Association. “More races means more opportunity, particularly for those breeders and owners of some of the horses that to don’t have the quality to race elsewhere for bigger purses. On the other hand, I would be very surprised if the tracks run all those dates. The more dates they run, the less money there is per day. It all depends on how much money is available from the commission.”