Plans are underway to carry harness racing to Nevada within the type of a 40,000 square-foot resort “racino” within the small city of Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
The proposal is the brainchild of the Nevada Standardbred Affiliation (NSA), a corporation dedicated to selling harness racing within the state, The Pahrump Valley Instances reviews.
There’s a main alternative right here,” Jeff Zidek, a racing veteran and guide on the undertaking, informed the Instances. “The western a part of the nation has only a few tracks.”
In addition to a ⅞-mile monitor with a secure for 280 horses, the ability would come with eating places, purchasing services, campgrounds, a waterpark, batting cages, a movie show, and digital actuality points of interest. It will even have parking for greater than 2,500 automobiles and 200 RVs, based on the proposal.
Horses for Programs
NSA president Tim Bohannon additionally needs an annual three-day pageant that will be held over the lengthy Nevada Day weekend.
Bohannon pitched the undertaking to county commissioners final week, and the response was enthusiastic. The undertaking may generate about 200 full-time jobs for horse trainers, vets and techs, groundskeepers, ticket distributors, and different hospitality employees, Bohannon informed commissioners.
Racing would run from late October till the top of Might, per the proposal, with two weekly meets that includes 12 stay races a day in the course of the season. They might even be simulcast internationally.
Las Vegas’ Horse Racing Historical past
Regardless of Nevada’s standing as a playing mecca, horse racing has by no means taken off within the state exterior of the White Pine and Elko County festivals. In the meantime, efforts to introduce thoroughbred racing to Las Vegas itself have been short-lived.
Las Vegas Park opened in 1953 and lasted simply six weeks. Las Vegas Solar–founder Hank Greenspun alleged in his 1966 autobiography that the entire thing was an embezzlement scheme from begin to end.
In 1963 got here Thunderbird Downs. The monitor was situated on the again grounds of the outdated Thunderbird Lodge, which as soon as stood on land that’s now a part of the Fontainebleau undertaking. It lasted three years. In 1981, Las Vegas Downs opened in Henderson, however struggled financially from the get-go.
Regardless of a remit to supply thoroughbred and quarter horse racing, all through its temporary existence it primarily supplied canine racing.
Whereas on paper, Nevada would appear like pure match for horse racing, the fact is that there has at all times been an excessive amount of competitors within the state, too many different alternatives to gamble in additional snug, air-conditioned environments.
The NSA is hoping that its idea of a racetrack that can also be a contemporary leisure middle will buck the pattern.