Live Racing Rule May Be Dumped Change Would Keep Greyhound Park From Having To Run Dogs

Idaho Gov. Phil Batt would like Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park to be able to broadcast dog and horse races without holding live races, as state law now requires.

That idea may surface in the Legislature next month, his staff says.

The owners of Les Bois Park in Boise are leasing Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park beginning Jan. 1. They wrote Batt and asked him to support their venture.

Part of the Les Bois proposal, unveiled Wednesday, includes one or two weekends of live dog racing each year along with broadcasts of races from across the country. State law requires a minimum amount of live dog racing in order for a track to have a license to broadcast races. People are allowed to place wagers on those races, also called simulcasts.

Batt “would like to see simulcasting without live dog racing,” said Amy Kleiner, Batt’s press secretary. She said a legislator is proposing such a change in state law, she said, adding that the governor would support it.

The governor voted against legalizing dog racing when he was in the Legislature. “I don’t think he likes the whole concept,” Kleiner said.

Les Bois officials said they were not aware of a proposal to drop the live dog racing requirement. And they are not certain if they like the idea.

“It could be good and it could be bad,” said Duane Didericksen, general manager of the group’s Boise horse track. “It’s an unknown to us.”

Les Bois signed a three-year lease for the Post Falls dog track, which was to be closed Jan. 1 after a seven-year, $21 million money-losing streak. It will offer simulcasts of dog and horse racing and will try to market the clubhouse for conventions and other events.

Fifty of the 200 people working there will keep their jobs. Les Bois hopes to rebuild the track’s customer base and eventually employ even more than the original 200.

The Greyhound Protection League, meanwhile, was saddened to learn that someone is breathing new life into the Post Falls-based dog track. The animal rights group doubts the one or two weekends of live racing are financially viable without huge financial subsidies.

“No dog man in his right mind is going to do it unless someone else pays the bills,” said Susan Netboy, of the Protection League. “We are all suspecting that they are just keeping the doors open … they may actually inch their way back in to a fully operational track.”

The Protection League also believes track promoters will next be going to the Legislature to ask that slot machines be allowed at race tracks in order to save the financially beleaguered racing industry. That’s happened in Iowa, and there are similar proposals in several Eastern states.

Batt is opposed to slots.

The new Greyhound Park management says they have no intention of going for slot machines. Or more live dog racing.

, DataTimes