Essig believes the sale — and pending development of a racino, a combination of horse racing and casino — will create up to 700 jobs, and increase purses at Lebanon to match those of Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
“This is a big shot in the arm for us,” Joe Essig Sr., 66, said as he worked in his barn Friday afternoon. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time. I just hope they hurry up and get this thing built.”
Delaware North Companies and Churchill Downs Inc. announced Thursday they had purchased the Lebanon Raceway from co-owners Miami Valley Trotting and Lebanon Trotting.
Prior to the sale, plans had been in place to vastly improve the racetrack at the Warren County Fairgrounds by building a new facility at the intersection of Ohio 63 and Ohio 741 in Turtlecreek Twp. and adding video slot machines to the grounds. The owners have predicted the facility will generate $24 million annually to the area.
Ron Sultemeier, director of new property planning and projects for Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment, said his company has worked with Lebanon Raceway since 1996, and just recently approached Churchill about the business venture. Churchill “made the deal even stronger,” he said.
Sultemeier said this will be the first “ground up” project for the company, which has added amenities such as table games, slots, video gaming machines, poker rooms, full-service restaurants, retail shops and lodging to numerous racing operators around the country.
He said the freeway access to the proposed site and the possibility of attracting people from southern Dayton and northern Cincinnati made the deal attractive. Sultemeier called the Butler and Warren county areas “a very strong market.”
The sale of the raceway was applauded throughout the area.
Greg Hartsoock, 69, of Lebanon, has been wagering at Lebanon for 50 years. He’s thankful the horsemen finally will receive compensation for their investments and talents.
“For the money they’re racing for,” he said, “it’s a hobby now.”
Susan Wilson, general manager of Miami Valley Trotting, agreed. She called the VLTs “a huge boost” to the standardbred business, and a lifesaver for the horse-racing industry.
“We’re going in the right direction,” she said.
Pacey Mindlin, who has owned and raced horses at Lebanon Raceway since 1965, said the sale “puts us on the map. It will be a tremendous economic boost for the whole area.”
Martin Russell, head of Warren County’s economic development, called the move “a good first step, but it’s the first step of many to come,” He cautioned that legislation must pass before the sale can be completed.
Jerry Knappenberger, general manager of the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association, said there was a time - and not long ago - that standardbred racing in Ohio was a $1 billion a year business, and it employed 25,000 people.
Today, it generates $700 million a year, he said.
C. Keith Nixon Jr., vice president of Miami Valley Trotting, said his family and the family of John Carlo — owners of Lebanon Raceway since 1951 — wanted a “fair price” and the sale to go to the right companies. He called the combination of the price tag and Delaware North and Churchill Downs “a grand slam” and an “incredible opportunity.”
Nixon reiterated the need for video lottery terminals that he said would allow Ohio tracks to finally compete with bordering states for standardbred racing dollars.
Right now, he said, horsemen are choosing to race outside of Ohio because purses at the other tracks — funded through the slots and other gaming — are much larger than Ohio.
“The playing field has been leveled,” he said.
In 2004, and for years before, Ohio led the nation in the production of standardbred horses with about 3,000 mares bred, Knappenberger said.
Ohio dropped to sixth in 2010, the most recent records available. That year, he said, there were 650 mares bred.
This probably won’t be the only horse track located along I-75. Preliminary site work on a proposed horse racing track in Dayton is under way and design work is in progress, Robert Tenenbaum, spokesman for Penn National Gaming, Inc. said Friday, but the development is still not a definite go.
The recent agreement between Delaware and Churchill to purchase Lebanon Raceway apparently hasn’t altered Penn’s intent to relocate Raceway Park — a harness racing track in Toledo — to north Dayton.
“I have seen no indication of that whatsoever,” Tenenbaum said. “Our focus is on our facilities. We’re pretty confident what we’re going to build will be a total first class operation.”
Dayton Real Estate Ventures LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penn National, purchased the 119-acre former Delphi location at the intersection of Needmore and Wagner Ford roads in August for $3.2 million, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office.
Staff writer Joanne Huist Smith contributed to this report.
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