The Halftime Sports Bar is once again the place to be for northcentral Montana horse racing fans looking to bet a few bucks on Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
And later this summer, the Montana Board of Horse Racing is once again wagering on Great Falls.
“The Great Falls experiment has been a win-win,” said Tom Tucker, executive director of the group the governs live horse racing in the state. “It’s been a win for the community and a win for the horse racing industry.”
The Great Falls Turf Club is planning to operate a six-day live race meet later this summer at Montana ExpoPark. It’s the sixth summer in a row the club has been in the horse racing business. This year the meet starts on July 15 and includes race cards July 21-22 and July 27-28-29.
The six days are one more than was the case last year.
“They’ve done it exactly the way it should have been done,” Tucker said. “It’s a partnership between the county, the horseman’s group and business people in Great Falls. It’s a gem for us. They’re really done a good job. Thanks to a lot of hard-working people.”
Horse racing in the state was down and just about out several years ago, with the Board of Horse Racing saddled with a massive debt. But thanks in part to several seasons of profitable live horse racing in Great Falls, the debt has dwindled.
“We’re finally getting a little ahead of the ball here,” Tucker said. “I suspect we’re going to get this debt paid off in a year, a little in advance of when we were supposed to, and that will free up some money. We’ve got some interesting things going on as far as simulcasting is concerned and we’re looking at some different things.
“I’m hoping we’ll start to generate a little more revenue and then we can look at expanding our race days and possibly look at another track or two.”
This Saturday is the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby. The Halftime is one of five locations in the state to place bets, a list that includes Scotty’s in Kalispell, Katie O’Keefe’s in Missoula, the Golden Spur in Miles City and the Enterprise in Billings.
The Run For the Roses, of course, is called the most exciting two minutes in sports. But for Great Falls horse racing fans, the fun this summer will again last a lot longer than that.
“They’ve done it right,” Tucker said of the Turf Club. “Every year they’ve tried to expand it a little and I think this year will be as good as they’ve ever had.”
Sparky Kottke remains the president of the Great Falls Turf Club.
“We’re getting things lined up,” said Kottke. “We plan to be on the track on the 18th of June to get it ready to go and hopefully we’ll open on the 1st of July for the horsemen to come in training before we open up on the 15th.”
Horse racing fans were told a few months ago that new betting windows are needed because deteriorating roof conditions have made it unsafe for people to be under the grandstand where the betting windows were.
The grandstand itself is safe for seating, engineers said, but new betting windows were needed. So the county has been refurbishing old railcars and turning them into new betting windows.
“They’re taking very good shape. We’re happy with what they’re doing with those cars and making them into betting windows,” Kottke said. “We are hopeful of another fine meet. We hope it’s not as hot as last year, but we’re looking at some things to help alleviate that. We’re working very hard with Susan Shannon (ExpoPark manager) and Brian Clifton (of city of Great Falls public works).
“We’re confident those new windows will work out real well.”