Real quick post.
In case you missed it, Gulf Greyhound Park has announced that they will cease live racing at the end of the year. Ken Hoffman of the Houston Chronicle provides some further detail:
After 23 years, Gulf Greyhound Park nears the finish line. Ken Hoffman, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Unsaid in the article, is that the current mess surrounding Texas racing spearheaded by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and friends is not just limited to horses, and is starting to have meaningful impacts on dog racing as well.
Granted, greyhound racing was a dying industry in Texas, ahead even of horse racing on the extinct-o-meter, but it certainly cannot help to schedule on-going live races in an environment where funding is only guaranteed for a few months and where the Texas Racing Commission is about to find itself staffed with people who don't like dog and horse racing period. Add to that the fact that greyhound racing is even more under attack by fringe-groups like PeTA and you have an environment where a venue once labeled among the best in the country is just about to shutter for good.
While it's true that Gulf Greyhound Park has fallen into disrepair over the years, and it's nowhere near the top-level racing forum it once was, it was still a place where some dogs of national renown had history so it will be sad to see it go.
Of course, there will be jobs lost and several dogs, suddenly without a reason for being, will probably find themselves put down (while others might get sold to different breeders, shipped out of state or adopted outside of the racing industry) and the venue will continue to limp along (for a while) as a simulcasting venue the fact remains that dog and horse racing never lived up to the wild financial promises they made when approved.
That, and the fact that demagogue politicians like Patrick and Sen. Jane Nelson, are dead set that they know what is best for all Texans, was enough to doom the industry who needed the shot in the arm that slots would provide to compete with gambling in bordering states. States who, conveniently, have made sizable financial donations to the very politicians who are fighting to restrict Texans' rights in line with their 'spiritual' guiding principals which just happen to dovetail perfectly with their financial well-being.
Would Gulf Greyhound Park have made a go of it with slot-machines? To be honest, I'm doubtful. Because greyhound racing is a dying breed, even in the most favorable of circumstances. And while horse racing is currently undergoing a resurgence in popularity (Thanks to Triple Crown and Breeder's Cup Classic winner American Pharoah) the sport of greyhound racing doesn't get a fraction of the media coverage or begging handle that it needs to survive. It also did a poor job with PR and rooting out the bad actors in its ranks, a thing which the horse industry has done much better on.
More importantly, I don't think dog racing is going to be missed by many. I've been to the track several times and the only time it was even remotely busy was during the Triple Crown horse races, even then it was only about a quarter as full as Sam Houston (as a matter of fact, it was my go-to venue for betting the Triple Crown, since you were unlikely to be able to reach the betting windows at Sam Houston in time). If I say names like "the Connally Turf Classic" and the "Maxxam Gold Cup" you probably can't identify what they are, but you might have heard the name.
Now, name a big race at Gulf Greyhound. You can't.
To be honest, neither can I. Despite the fact that I've been there several times.
So, in the grand scheme of things, this is a small ripple in the larger movement toward limiting Texans' in-state gambling options and allowing adults of a consenting age the ability to make decisions for themselves. If anything however it should act as a canary in the coal mine as the State of Texas moves to secure their monopoly on gambling in the form of the Texas Lottery. (Which, as you know, is really just a tax on those who are terrible at math*). Amazingly however, even that is not safe from social conservatives in today's single-party Texas government.
And so it goes.
*While I'm opposed to playing the Lottery myself, and actively encourage people not to, I also respect the right of adults to do so should they choose.
