The owner of Ellis Park in western Kentucky said he will close the facility, where the summer race meet was to begin on Friday, citing a court ruling in a dispute with horsemen.

Ellis Park owner Ron Geary said he has no plans to reopen Ellis, which was built in 1922, as a racetrack.

Geary told The Courier-Journal in Louisville that he decided to close the track after a federal judge turned down his request for an injunction against Kentucky horsemen. The injunction would have allowed Geary to offer Ellis races to national account wagering outlets that take bets by phone and online.

“I don’t have any plans on opening it again as a racetrack,” Geary said Wednesday. “That’s for sure.”

A formal announcement was expected Thursday morning.

(There were high hopes for Ellis Park when Geary bought the track in 2006. Horsemen vowed to support the racing product, and Geary planned to make the track the Del Mar or Saratoga of the Midwest.)

Earlier in June, Geary indicated the account-wagering situation was tenuous, and that the future of Ellis Park was up in the air.

The closure means Kentucky horsemen will have no place to race in the state for much of the summer as Churchill Downs’ spring-summer meet ends Sunday. The closest alternative is River Downs in Cincinnati.

Rick Hiles, president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said the horsemen’s revenue-sharing plan would have resulted in more money for Geary as well.

Hiles said he hated to see the decision to close Ellis. He called it “rash” and said he had hoped negotiations could continue.

Account wagering is the growth area of the $15 billion-a-year pari-mutuel market. Horsemen’s groups nationwide are attempting to gain a larger share of revenues from it. Hiles said account wagering represented 5 percent of Ellis’ betting last year.

He said if Geary is closing the track because of the ruling, “he was going to close it anyway.”

About 400 horses are on the track’s grounds. It was not clear how long the stable area will remain open.

Kentucky Horse Racing Authority executive director Lisa Underwood said Geary informed her Wednesday that the track wouldn’t open for the meet.

“I’m sorry that it came to this,” she said. “It’s sad for the industry, but I am not surprised.”

Churchill Downs’ betting numbers have been down because horsemen blocked its races from being offered to national account-wagering companies, like Churchill’s TwinSpires.com. Under federal law, horsemen have the right to block races from interstate betting.

The horsemen notified Geary last week that Ellis’ races would be blocked as well, which prompted Geary to file a lawsuit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court, where a hearing took place in Owensboro on Wednesday.

Geary said in the lawsuit that Ellis lost $2.7 million during the 2007 meet and would be forced to close without account wagering revenue.

Geary bought the track in 2006 from Churchill Downs Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

The track, on the north bank of the Ohio River, was formerly known as Dade Park. James C. Ellis bought it and operated it from 1925 until he died in 1956, and it was renamed in his honor. Churchill Downs owned the track from 1998 until 2006, when it was sold to Geary.

A November 2005 tornado caused heavy damage at the track, but it was rebuilt for the 2006 season.

The grade III Gardenia Stakes was the track’s centerpiece event.
(Source: The Blood-Horse)