A couple of former Standardbred racetracks have made the news in the past few days due to future re-purposing and demolition.
Balmoral Park made the news late last week when it was reported that the historic Crete, Illinois track will be transformed into a hunter/jumper equestrian centre.
The pair of articles indicate that Balmoral Park has been purchased by an upstate New York-based company that goes by the name of HITS Inc. The company has held show-jumping events for three decades. It has been reported that, once transformed, the site will host as many as 14 shows a year, which would take place during the spring and summer months.
Rockingham Park is the other former Standardbred raceway that has been in the news, as multiple outlets have ran pieces explaining that there is a deal in place that would see the historic New Hampshire raceway close all operations on August 31 of this year.
The sale goes through, the 110-year-old track would be demolished. The track hasn’t hosted live harness racing in six years, and it hasn’t hosted live Thoroughbred racing in 10 years. The track’s general manager, Ed Callahan, was quoted last Friday as saying, “It’s sad to ultimately see it go, but I think we’ve all seen the handwriting on the wall, for the last few years at any rate.”
(With files from The Chicago Tribune, The Times of Northwest Indiana, The New Hampshire Union Leader and the Lowell Sun)