Did they ask the Mafia yet? Those guys know how to run a track.

Maybe there’s a clue here. Horse racing doesn’t seem to be attracting a lot of operators you’d want babysitting the kids. It’s not about horses, it’s about gambling. I’m not a prude, but I wonder why local government should be involved in this kind of enterprise in the first place.

You are absolutely correct Rick!
It is, in fact, about gambling. While we are addressing the ponies, why don’t we start a little “loan sharking” with parking fines. And as long as we are in the game anyway, let’s turn some of those massage parlors into real money makers! And all that good booze from the state? Let’s just put a fake tag on it and sell it ourselves! So you see Rick, it is either us or the Justice Department! (and we all know how crooked those guys at Justice are)
If you think this is a pain, just wait till you find out how much the county will lose with no racing. You see, without a live race schedule, there is no off track betting either. Come fair time we may just have a new “hole in the ground” owned by the county this time!

A lot of the anti-racing comments seem to come from people who know nothing about horse racing; I wonder whether they’ve even ever been to the races.

Yep, there’s gambling (though not in league with the stock markets as far as possible losses), there’s drinking, though less than at a bar where there’s little to do but chug it down; yep, there are some sleazy people involved sometimes, but I doubt it’s any higher percentage than in most businesses — certainly less than in Enron, AIG, the now-defunct M-K (top-level folks), and certainly less that in politics.

The racehorse owners, trainers, grooms, jockeys, etc. do it more for the love of the game and the animals than for the money — it’s rare that any of them make a profit, especially at a small track like Boise.

But, now those folks are out of work, the owners have horses that bring no income, but still have to try to feed and house them, take care of vet bills, shoeing, etc. I wonder what will happen to the horses when the owners run out of money. There’s no market for them when there’s no racing, and prices on horses of all kinds are down, like prices for houses, etc.

Vets, feed suppliers, equipment suppliers (Jim Flynn’s comes to mind), etc., lose their main customer base.

And the county gets no rent from the track!

Seems like a lose-lose situation.

If we don’t have horse racing this year at Les Bois Park, the County will utilize the facilities for other purposes. For additional information about this whole situation, please see http://www.sharonu.com/blog.

If only all landlords in this town would be as discriminating as the Ada Commissioners.

Here’s an example, the landlords down the street, in their haste to get the place rented, took on a tenant with 2 large dogs. 2 large dogs in an 800SF apartment with no fenced yard. After a year when the tenant moved out the damage was extraordinary. Not only did the carpet have to be replaced, so did the flooring which had rotted from constant wetness from dog urine.

Damn right you should be careful who you rent to.

EDITOR NOTE–Boisecynic has just earned the “segue of the year.” (For you non library types that’s “an uninterrupted transition…”)

GHIW:
1) I can’t imagine what you’re comparing the track with. The Triple Crown tracks?
Have you been at the other tracks in Idaho, or the small ones in other Western states?
Les Bois looks like the Taj Mahal compared to them.
Yes, the barns are rather tacky, and it’s up to the users of each stall to repair, paint or whatever it needs, so not all of them do a lot. But the slums in Juarez? Whew, that’s really a stretch.
2) I didn’t say anything about using it to introduce kids to horses, although I do see quite a few younguns who really enjoy it (even though they can’t gamble and drink beer or booze).
3) Interesting that everybody keeps comparing the current rent proposals with the rent that helped run the previous group off. Now compare it with the three or four before the commishes multiplied it by a large number to charge Capitol Racing waaayyy more than the previous operators. That might clarify some of the problem. And, no, each racing season does not leave the facilities worse; each year, at least some improvements are made.
4) Yes, vet and feed suppliers have more customers, but to say the track is seasonal doesn’t compute — those horses have to be fed, doctored and otherwise taken care of 365 days a year (if you grew up with horses, I should think you would know that!)
And, no; if the deal went bad, I would not be lambasting the BOCC for dealing with these “businessmen” to begin with. I would be saying, “Well, at least they tried.”

And, FYI, the track grandstands are used for seating for various concerts, etc., between racing seasons.

Paul:
If by “green lawnmowers,” you mean ones that don’t drink petroleum products and belch smog, yeah, there are scores of those at the track when it’s operating.
The stalls are filled with lawnmowers that not only mow, but they compost the clippings and eject them as organic fertilizer.

How’s that for “green”??!!!!??!