Loveland – After years of declining revenues, the Cloverleaf Kennel Club, in business for more than five decades, will no longer host greyhound racing at its Loveland track, its owner announced Thursday.
The track, which ran its final live race in May, said it will not seek a racing permit for next year.
Club president David Scherer said the move has been on the table for five years.
“We had to bite the bullet sometime,” he said. “… These things just come to an end.”
The track, which still simulcasts races from other tracks, hosts about 3,000 people and 120 races a week, general manager John Manning said. Scherer blames casino gambling, legislation and decisions by the Colorado Racing Commission for the club’s 15 years of financial distress.
“The rise of casinos and limited-stakes gambling in the casinos has cut betting on the horses and greyhounds in half,” Scherer said. “Our fortunes took a nose dive.”
Colorado Racing Commission member Jack Pretti agreed with Scherer in attributing at least part of the blame for the decline of the live racing industry to casino gambling.
“Casino gaming is a competition for live racing events, and there is certainly competition for that recreational dollar,” Pretti said.
Profits declined further when a law passed in 2003 required the club to contribute to the operations of the Colorado Racing Commission.
The commission also requires that the dirt and gravel surface of the tracks be replaced, costing up to $100,000. Cloverleaf officials said they could not afford it.
The club’s closing reflects the decline of dog racing nationwide, Scherer said.
The club opened in 1955. The state’s first live racing track opened in 1949, and within 15 years the state boasted five live racing clubs. With Cloverleaf ending its greyhound racing, Mile High Greyhound Park will be the only track in Colorado to offer it.
Scherer, the company’s president for 27 years, said he was sad to see the heart of the business fold.
“My late father, Walter, was one of founders of the racetrack, and he had been president before me,” he said. “I grew up watching the races from that first year. I took over when my dad died.”
