More than 5,000 people watched the first horse races in Columbus

The horse racetrack at Harrah’s Columbus ran its first slate of races this weekend.

About 5,500 people visited the race track over the course of three days in Columbus, according to Joe Morris, vice president of racing for Caesars Entertainment. Caesars owns Harrah’s Columbus.

The turnout shows the appetite for horse racing in the eastern Nebraska town of about 24,000 people, Morris said. Two years ago the horse track was a cornfield.

“We had to wait for them to harvest the corn before we could start,” Morris said. “For the year and a half later, [it took] a lot of work, a lot of people participating and making that happen but to finally get it open was very rewarding. And I’m really happy for the city and people of Columbus and really happy for our horsemen.”

Ag Park in Columbus officially closed down last fall after running horses for nearly 80 years.

Harrah’s Columbus is the first one mile track in Nebraska following the closure of the Aksarben Racetrack in Omaha nearly 30 years ago. It’s also one of the first tracks built since the passage of three constitutional amendments in 2020, which legalized casino gambling adjacent to horse racing venues.

About 170 horses ran in 15 total races from Friday through Sunday in Columbus. The biggest purse was $15,000 dollars going to the winner of a race between Nebraska horses, Morris said.

At the sports betting desk, he said customers placed local and national bets.

“We probably wagered just a little less than $100,000 over the three days. And that's just what was bet on our product,” Morris said.

Staffing and stocking the seven bars at the track was a challenge, but Morris said it hopes to improve.

In the next four weeks, Harrah’s Columbus will run 12 additional racing days.