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Ohio horsemen flee state, looking for higher purses

By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

LEBANON, Ohio — There are 16 barns at Lebanon Raceway in Lebanon, Ohio. But all the Standardbreds on the premises could fit into one barn.

This once busy racetrack in southwestern Ohio appears much like a ghost town, as horsemen have departed to tracks in Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These states offer slot machines and other casino games, thus the purses at these tracks are five times those found at Lebanon Raceway. Unfortunately for horsemen in Ohio, state legislators won’t allow such gaming at any of Ohio’s seven beleaguered horse tracks.

“I’ve been around Lebanon Raceway since 1958,” said horse trainer Stan Crowe, now 79. “This track has become a ghost town. Ten years ago there were 400 sires standing in Ohio. Today there are just 16.”

To make ends meet Crowe trains his horses at the Lebanon oval, but transports them to Indiana Downs for bigger purses.

“In Indiana everything is just fine, but not here,” Crowe said.
A growing state budget deficit and disappointing revenues from Keno, an electronic bingo game, have encouraged lawmakers to put gambling options on the ballot this fall. Senate Republicans, who are rewriting Gov. Ted Strickland’s $54 billion state budget, may try and include gambling (like 14,000 video slot machines) into the budget bill, which must pass by the end of June.

State Rep. Louis Blessing says the budget could be amended during joint House and Senate budget hearings next month, calling for a statewide slots vote for horse tracks. But many fear they won’t get the 60 percent of legislative votes needed (a three-fifths majority of the Ohio General Assembly) to seek voter approval.
Supporters say gaming would provide an economic boost to the industry and recover as much as $1.2 billion in gambling income lost to surrounding states like Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and West Virginia.

Ohio’s equine industry employs 15.000 and at one point had a $900 million economic impact. But as the racing industry developed in other states, Ohio has lagged behind.

“In the 1960s and 1970s the handle at Lebanon Raceway was around $400,000. Today that number is around $25,000 a night,” Crowe said. “Come to Lebanon Raceway on any given night and you might see 100 people in the grandstand, when in previous years the place was packed. The horsemen would rather race out of state for purses of $6,000 rather than $1,500.”

Stan’s son, John, echos that sentiment.

“I remember jogging my first horse here when I was six years old,” John said. “But our family races the horses in Indiana. We have to go where the money is.”

And the situation in Kentucky is just as grim. Churchill Downs has cut back to a four-day race week for the remainder of its meet because of lack of horses, whose owners and trainers have bolted for better purses in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana.
Marty Woebkenberg is a licensed official at Lebanon Raceway. He also has 12 broodmares, with four training at Lebanon Raceway. His father and grandfather have raced at this Ohio track since 1940.
“The lack of funds at Ohio tracks has made people shift to other states and in the long run that’s hurting the breeding here in Ohio,” he said. “Some of the breeders who left are gone for good and won’t be back.”

Nov. 3 will mark the third time in four years that a casino issue is put before Ohio voters. A vote for slots at horse tracks and standalone casinos in Cleveland failed in 2006. Last fall, a ballot proposal to place a casino in Clinton County also was defeated. Those pushing to have gaming on the fall ballot need 402,275 Ohio voters’ signatures by July 1 to get the constitutional issue on the fall ballot.

6/3/2009