Dog Track Future Undecided Racing Ends This Weekend; Other Operations Uncertain

As the Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park heads into its final weekend of live dog racing, track ownership has yet to decide what to do with the property.

Saturday’s afternoon races have been cancelled, leaving evening racing sessions for Friday and Saturday. The final dog races will start at 7 p.m. Sunday at the park in Post Falls.

Simulcast racing, where bettors can wager on horse racing from other parks, will continue at Greyhound Park. The Alabama-based ownership group of Greyhound Park will consider selling the simulcast operation to a Boise racing group.

Greyhound Park pays Les Bois Racetrack in Boise fees for using it as a hub for simulcast operations, as do several other Idaho tracks, said Al May, Greyhound Park manager.

If Les Bois were to take over the Greyhound Park simulcast, it wouldn’t have to pay the fees for using itself as a hub for the simulcasts links.

“They’d be able to operate it at more of a profit,” May said.

Duayne Didericksen, general manager at Les Bois, said the discussions to buy the Greyhound Park simulcast were “very preliminary at this time.”

“It’s just been brought to our attention,” he said from Boise. “We’re willing to take a look at it but we haven’t decided anything yet.”

The park has a license to have simulcasting through Dec. 31, 1996, said Richard Cade, a commissioner on the Idaho State Racing Commission.

The Alabama group could sell the simulcasting operation to any party without penalty, Cade said.

Simulcasting will continue to employ a handful of part-time employees at the park. The majority of the 210 workers - most of them part-time - will lose their jobs after Sunday. The track has offered them all jobs at the company’s greyhound tracks in Iowa and Texas.

As for the 2,500 seat clubhouse, the track continues to negotiate with five non-profit groups about bringing bingo to the facility. Running a bingo establishment wouldn’t be particularly profitable for the track, but would help defray some of the losses.

May said there is no timetable to reaching an agreement for bingo at the clubhouse. He does expect a decision to be made about the simulcast operation before the year is out.

The ownership group, headed by Paul Bryant Jr., decided to close the track in October after losing more than $21 million at the operation since 1989. The track itself cost $10 million to open.

The track originally planned to close Dec. 31, but moved the date up late last month.

A declining handle and attendance at the track contributed to the closure.

, DataTimes