Owner Travis Boersma announced the cancellation of the 2022 race meet at Grants Pass Downs earlier this month after the racetrack lost its “economic engine,” which was intended to be the historical racing machines at The Flying Lark entertainment venue.
(Read more about Grants Pass Downs' cancellation here.)
Now, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News, the Oregon Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA) has informed the state racing board that it will attempt to keep Grants Pass open as a training center and possibly a brief fair-style meet this summer.
“When it became apparent that [Grants Pass Downs] was not going to renew their commercial license, we decided that the best thing was for the HBPA to seek that license for itself for the continuation of the commercial meet as well as the obvious benefits of the off-track betting (OTB) network,” executive director Randy Boden said during the Apr. 21 Oregon Racing Commission (ORC) meeting.
Grants Pass will require horsemen to exit the backstretch on April 30, and run the OTB network through June 30, when the racing license expires. The OHBPA would ideally be able to step in at that point, though the short notice will make that difficult.
At the very least, the OHBPA wants to be able to offer the horsemen a place to continue training so that horses will be ready to race at the state's fair meets.
“We are further looking into the possibility of working with Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association (SOHRA) to see if there's a possibility of running a short race meet in between the end of Union and the start of Prineville,” Boden added. “Currently, since we have no racing license until June, we have no standing to run a race meet as the HBPA, but SOHRA has many years of experience running race meets at Grants Pass [prior to Boersma taking over].”
Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.
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