Because most Utah political leaders and their constituents view parimutuel wagering and Planned Parenthood with similar disdain, this state's most significant horse race in decades takes place Sunday in Rock Springs, Wyo.
The finals of the $97,312 Western States Breeders Futurity, which features quarter horse races, will be run at Sweetwater Downs, which is a three-hour drive up I-80 from downtown Salt Lake.
The purse, by itself, makes the race noteworthy. You have to go back to the mid-1980s, when the Silver Dollar and Diamond Classic Futurities were run at Wyoming Downs, to find a race in this area worth more money.
Beyond that, the Western States Breeders Futurity is a tangible sign of the revival of live horse racing in Wyoming, which, in turn, has had a dramatic impact on the industry in neighboring Utah.
"I was thinking about getting out," local trainer Chad Giles told me a few months ago. "There was just no money in it."
But things have changed drastically here, where the horse racing business has received a life-saving jump-start.
Exhibit A: Nine of the 10 finalists for the Western States Breeders Futurity are Utah-bred 2-year-olds. Seven of the 10 started their racing careers at Laurel Brown Racetrack, located at the Salt Lake Equestrian Park.
Eugene Joyce is the president and general manager of Wyoming Horse Racing LLC, which operates the meet at Sweetwater Downs.
"When I first got into this five years ago," he said, "the whole industry was dead in Wyoming and dying in Utah."
Not anymore.
"For a nonparimutuel state like Utah to have that many passionate horse owners and trainers is just incredible to me," Joyce said. "Even during downturn over the last 10 or 15 years, these people struck with it. They've kept the faith. They kept trying to catch lightning in a bottle."
Joyce is the driving force behind the Western States Breeders Futurity, which is open to horses bred in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming and Utah.
In other words, the race gives owners and breeders in the smaller quarter-horse states — beyond Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and California — a rich target for their 2-year-olds.
"The impetus was to one day have a race as big as Silver Dollar or Diamond Classic, like the old days at Wyoming Downs," said Joyce, whose father owned the Evanston track in the 1990s.
"This isn't a stallion prodigy race like those other ones, But we are reaching out to the states where their breeders might not have a big race to look forward to."
Joyce put up $50,000 toward the Western States Breeders Futurity. The other $47,312 this year comes from entry and sustaining fees. The $97,312 total represents a 30-percent jump from one year ago, fueling Joyce's bigger dream.
"I think the potential for a $200,000 race is not out of the question," he said.
Those in the Utah horse industry are hoping Joyce is right.
luhm@sltrib.com
Twitter: @sluhm
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