Some Live Racing Will Return To Dog Track Boise Track Will Employ 50 At Coeur D’Alene Greyhound Park

A Boise horse track which is run by a veterinarian is leasing Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park for the next three years and will continue to simulcast dog racing and horse racing there beginning Jan. 1.

There also will be live dog racing one or two weekends a year, said Chris Christian, chief executive officer of Boise’s Les Bois Park.

Idaho law requires a minimum number of live races for a simulcasting license, which Christian said will be transferred to his company next week by the Idaho Racing Commission.

The Wednesday afternoon announcement means 50 people will keep their jobs.

That’s the best economic news Post Falls has had since the dog track and the Louisiana-Pacific Corp. mill announced they would be closing this winter. The dog track once employed more than 200 people, while L-P employed 113 workers.

Christian tackled head-on the past allegations of animal abuse at the dog track. “It isn’t going to happen,” said Christian, an equine veterinarian.

“I have been a vet for more than 25 years, and the welfare of animals is my life,” he said. “I am personally going to take responsibility for those animals.”

He also will establish a board of directors that includes humane society representatives, police and veterinarians, he said.

Meanwhile, all of the dogs used in live racing - which ended Dec. 17 - have been adopted, Christian said. That’s a tribute to an effort by the former track management, he said.

Don Gross, former food and beverage manager at the track, will become the new operations manager. And Christian’s group will rely on “plain old hustle and hard work and common sense” to try to turn around the dog-racing facility.

Christian’s group also will run leaner, he said. “If a mutual seller has a break, he may have to sell a hot dog,” Christian said. “We have to downsize in order to make this work.”

The new company also will try everything to market the plush facility for everything from conventions to parties.

Live horse racing isn’t likely to come to Greyhound Park because of the expense, Christian said.

The new management will host races with large purses designed to attract top-quality greyhounds from around the Northwest one or two weekends a year, likely in late summer or early fall.

Greyhound Park is owned by Paul Bryant Jr. and his Alabamabased Greene Group. It has lost an estimated $21 million since it opened in 1988.

Attendance has declined 50 percent since 1992. Betting at the track also has dropped significantly, prompting the closure.

Christian and three other men own Les Bois Park Inc. in Boise. The other partners include Paul Girdner, who owns race horses and is in the animal hide business; Jack Stolfo, who owns a Boise-based household products company called Sun Gold; and Brice Underdahl, who owns a restaurant in Boise.

They took over the horse-racing operation from Ada County six years ago and say they have made it a financial success. Les Bois started selling simulcasts to Greyhound Park two years ago.

During the first 10 months of 1995, Les Bois generated $23 million in betting at simulcast locations in Jerome, Malad, Post Falls and Boise. It will take at least $14 million a year in betting to make Greyhound Park break even, Christian said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition