As racing season expands, Nebraska looks to meet demand for horses

The new Harrah's Casino racetrack in Columbus hosted only five of the six races it anticipated for its grand opening Friday afternoon. The final event failed to attract enough qualified horses.

Track officials cited unexpected competition from another race event out of state.

The shortened inaugural day also highlighted an issue recognized by the racing community. Nebraska is trying to catch up with the demand for thoroughbreds as new tracks tied to casinos come online.

It's an issue industry officials are aware of, and breeders have begun to address. A marketing study contracted by the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission noted that while it's good news that casino-based tracks will increase demand for horses, it also creates pressure on the Nebraska industry to produce enough horses to field the majority of the runners for the 865 races forecast for 2031.

The study, authored by consultants with The Innovation Group, estimated that, to meet an ideal field size of six horses per race by 2031, Nebraska will need nearly triple the number of current broodmares and foals produced by 2027.

The state's horse breeders are "excited, but also a little bit concerned," according to Kathy Anderson, the horse specialist with the University of Nebraska Extension Service. The concern comes from getting the additional specialized help they'll need.

"You don't have a ton of people, educated people to help you," she said. "It's a lot of work. They know that we need more people doing this, depending on the size of your farm, and that you don't have an army to work on this."

To fill those gaps, Anderson and the university have been assisting with training and resources through a program called Race Nebraska.

She noted this is a complicated process that requires time and money.

"You have to understand it's going to be several years before you breed that mare to you have to a horse's racing age," she said.

After the demise of the famed Ak-Sar-Ben track in Omaha in the 1990s, many trainers and breeders have been out of the business for the past 20 years.

According to statistics from the Jockeys Club, the national race organization, Nebraska had over 200 days of live horse racing a year at its peak. That number dropped to as low as 51 by 2021.

Breeders and trainers based in the state had little incentive to invest in new horses.

In just a decade, the number of Nebraska-bred foals dropped from 147 in 2002 to just 35 in 2012.

"That's how bad it got," said Chris Kotulak, the chief executive officer of Fonner Park Racing in Grand Island.

The quality of racing suffered. Prize money for winners, the purse, dropped by half in the past 20 years. Fewer horses took to the track.

"We don't want to run a four-race card with four or five horses; just say we're running a race," said Kotulak. "That's not why we're in business."

Fonner Park hosted more than half of the total race days run in the state.

"The other tracks have suffered, and I understand, man," Kotulak said. "I feel your pain. I know what it's like to run a racetrack, or have an old facility, or not have the revenue coming that you need."

In 2020, the thoroughbred breeders were thrown a lifeline by Nebraska voters. By a wide margin, the state approved a change in law allowing casino gambling only if there was horse racing along with the slots and table games. Before the election, the state's horsemen heavily promoted the plan as a way to save a struggling part of the agricultural community.

"I think an increase in races is going to help the number of horses, but we also need the number of horses to fill those races," Anderson said. "So it's a double-edged thing that you have to kind of cover."

The results were almost instantaneous.

Established breeders began acquiring new breeding stock.

Dave Anderson, an Ashland-based trainer in the state's racing Hall of Fame, made plans to fill his stables again. (He is not related to Kathy Anderson.)

"That fall, I went down to Kentucky and bought, I think, eight or nine mares for my clients," he recalled.

He was not alone. The Racing Commission study reported a 60% increase in mares since 2019.

"By the time we get all the racetracks in full swing, I think there will be an ample amount of Nebraska-breds," he said.

On a steamy, windless Saturday morning outside Ashland, Nebraska, a rider put a veteran thoroughbred named Phlash Drive through the paces on the training oval at Anderson Farms.

Watching from a picnic table with a cup of coffee, Dave Anderson told a visitor that Phlash is 8 years old.

"We raised him right on the farm. I bought his mom in Kentucky," he said. "And he's made $125,000 in his career and still at it."

Phlash was scheduled to join the field in the fifth race at the track in Columbus. The thoroughbred is the only one Dave Anderson solely owns. The others he'll travel with are owned all or in part by clients that pay us to do the training.

This year marks Dave Anderson's 40th year as a horse trainer and breeder in Nebraska. He claims he's ready to retire, but he's not about to bow out now with so much going on in Nebraska racing.

"Honestly, I'm trying to cut back," he said.

Back in the 1990s, he would take 75 horses up to Fonner Park every season.

The interest from his clients and investors is a sign the money and interest are out there to bankroll a new generation of thoroughbred racers in Nebraska.