Hobbies Omaha

Hobbies Omaha

Nebraska horse racing no sure bet

Like everyone else trying to wade through difficult economic times, Kim Veerhusen has searched for ways to cut corners with his business.

Eliminating expenses isn't easy, though, when you're in the horse racing industry. Horses need to be fed. Veterinarians must be paid.

Veerhusen, who trains horses on a farm 30 miles south of Lincoln, near Adams, has trimmed here and there. He's limited his travel. He tries to do more preparation on his farm, rather than the track.

"I think we've cut it down as far as we can," said Veerhusen, who estimates his operation, about 32 horses, costs $3,000 per week.

Mind you, training and racing horses isn't a hobby for Veerhusen, a Nebraska native who's been a full-time trainer for seven years and part of the state's industry for 23 years.

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He's not the only one. Horsemen across the state are fighting increasing costs, stagnant purse structures, increased competition for the gambling dollar and now the uncertainty of having a race track in Lincoln beyond 2012.

Their latest challenge may be their biggest: Keeping racing alive by building a mile-long race track in Lincoln to replace the current 5/8 oval at the former State Fair Park. The Nebraska Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association is leasing the current track from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln through 2012, and then must leave as UNL turns the property into a research campus.

"Somehow, we have to secure the Lincoln market for horse racing in this state," said Greg Hosch, vice president of Omaha Exposition and Racing, which oversees operations at tracks in Omaha, Lincoln and South Sioux City. "We can't afford to lose that."

"I don't think Lincoln, as a community, realizes it, which is a shame, but there is a lot of money," said Tom Sage, director of the Nebraska State Racing Commission.

Lincoln's average daily live attendance, comparing the same time periods, has increased from 2,203 to 2,449. But Lincoln is running five fewer live dates than last year. In fact, the number of live racing dates in Nebraska has plummeted over the last two decades, from 228 in 1988 to 91 this year.

"We're at the point right now where we can't reduce the number of days of live racing in Nebraska any shorter than what we have," Columbus trainer Larry Staroscik said. "It wouldn't make any sense to have a football team and get them all ready to play and everything, and then have a two-game schedule."

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Horsemen's Atokod Downs in South Sioux City, meanwhile, is "on life support," Hosch said, after its four-day live meet in 2009 lost $250,000. The track will run only one live day this fall.

"That's the one thing that's happened, is that we've shortened our season so much it's hard for owners to keep the horses around," he said.

What's become clear is that purse structures won't increase through expanded gambling or off-track betting. A proposal to expand horse race wagering died in the Nebraska legislature in February.

"The perception was it would've been like Keno, 600 locations, and that's just not possible economically," he said. "You're talking about a few key locations, and that's it, that would've allowed us to expand."

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