Ten Second Horse Race?

It seems some will do anything to save the moribund horse racing industry in Nebraska, and in Lincoln particularly, while certainly skirting the law. 

Gosh, just about every ranch and farm could hold one of these and establish a pari-mutuel betting parlor on their property in hope of the day the horse racing industry will finally get real gambling, tv racing slot machines and then real slot machines and then table gambling.....

From the Lincoln Star Journal:

Lincoln Race Course to host January live race

"Greg Hosch has only one concern for horse racing fans who venture out to Lincoln Race Course for Tuesday’s live one-furlong race.

 

“I’m afraid if they go to the bathroom and come back,” Hosch said, “it could be over.”

The race won’t last much longer than 10 seconds.

 

But it’s an official race, and that’s all that matters to Hosch, the vice president of Omaha Exposition and Racing, which oversees racing in Lincoln.

 

Lincoln Race Course is being demolished by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which will build a research park on that location.

 

The track held what was thought to be its final live race last July, as the Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolence & Protective Association is building a new simulcast facility and mile-long track at U.S. 77 and West Denton Road.

 

But under Nebraska statute, tracks must run one day of live racing each year to keep their simulcast licenses for the following year. So Lincoln needed a place to run a live race this year in order to have simulcast racing at its new location in 2014.

Turns out, there’s just enough remaining of the Lincoln Race Course track to run a short race and meet legal obligations.

 

“The rail is still up through the stretch, and there are no set parameters on how long the race has to be,” Hosch said. “We just came up with the idea, that if we could get the university to tell us it was OK, we’d go ahead and run a race there.”

 

Racing secretary Wayne Anderson put out a condition book and distributed it to horsemen at Grand Island’s Fonner Park who are preparing for that track’s meet, which begins next month.

 

Five horses were entered in the $3,500 claiming race, which has a $3,900 purse, and three will run. The participants in the race for Nebraska-breds are The Straw Man, Bluff Center Road and Sonic Bloom. They’ll be ridden by Jake Olesiak, Bryan Houghton and Jose Ranilla, respectively.

 

Post time is 1 p.m., and pari-mutuel wagering will be for win only. Fans can watch from the clubhouse, but the apron and mezzanine sections have been turned into storage areas and will be closed. The race will not be simulcast to other tracks, Hosch said.

 

A full crew will be on hand, and the starting gate will be hauled in from Grand Island on Tuesday morning.

 

Hosch said the track is in good condition.

 

“We’ve taken every precaution,” Hosch said. “We don’t want it to look like it’s some kind of a ham-scam thing. This is a real live race. It’s going in the books.”"