I was stunned.

I hadn't checked in a few weeks and, when I did Thursday night, the website for the off-track betting facility in Evanston, Wyo., was shut down.

So I called the High Country Inn, where the OTB facility was housed, and discovered the phone had been disconnected.

You could have knocked me over with a $2 trifecta ticket.

Of course, live racing at Wyoming Downs was discontinued last summer — we all hoped temporarily.

Management blamed a sagging economy, but nearly everyone else blamed management and its lack of commitment to the operation.

Still, the off-track site remained open for business — a destination for those along the Wasatch Front who enjoy racing and bumping into friends who also embrace the sport.

We are outnumbered in Utah, in case you hadn't noticed.

While off-track betting remains available in Wendover and southern Idaho, losing Wyoming Downs and the Evanston OTB feels like a death in the family.

For years, I covered the racetrack during the summer, mostly as a break from my September-to-June duties on the Utah Jazz beat.

The paper got a little work from me; I didn't have to catch any 7 a.m. flights.

Fair enough.

I actually wore out my 1987 Mustang driving back-and-forth to Wyoming Downs during a time the Daily Racing Form had to be tracked down and purchased, not called up online.

During those summers, I met people who became treasured friends: Jay Gurmankin, Kevin Mackin, Eugene Joyce, Frank Lamb, the Maxwells, Max and Janae Carson, Perry Bruno, Sharon, Nor and Jalene Hendricks, Dan Valdez and many others.

I also had the privilege of meeting and interviewing two of the most significant contributors to world-wide horse racing whom the Greatest Generation ever produced.

The first was Joe Joyce, who bought struggling Wyoming Downs a few years after it opened in 1985 and, through sheer willpower, determination and commitment, operated it for a decade.

Joyce also started off-track betting in Wyoming, just as he'd helped do in New York in the 1970s.

But Joyce's biggest contribution to racing came as president of Arlington Park in Chicago.

In 1981, he started the Arlington Million, which remains the second-most prestigious turf race in the United States behind the Breeders' Cup.

In 1985, Joyce pulled off the "Miracle Million," which was held only three weeks after a huge fire destroyed the Arlington grandstand.

Four years later, Joyce owned Wyoming Downs when the greatest jockey in history, Bill Shoemaker, made the little racetrack a stop on his retirement tour.

I talked to Shoemaker before his appearance and he asked about the horses he was scheduled to ride, The Irish Devil and Sailor Erin.

"The best two on the grounds," I told him.

"I better win, then," he replied.

Shoemaker won on both horses, of course. They were two of his 8,833 victories in a career that also included win in the inaugural Arlington Million on John Henry and four Kentucky Derbys.

After his Wyoming Downs appearance, Shoemaker dined with Joe Joyce and T.K. McCarthey, the late owner of The Salt Lake Tribune.

Mr. McCarthey also owned The Irish Devil, and his love of that racehorse helped keep him going during days of failing health.

Thanks, Wyoming Downs.

Thanks, Wyoming OTB.

Thanks for the memories.

luhm@sltrib.com