Greyhound groups jockey for a cut of $2M in funds
LA MARQUE — More than a year after the closure of Gulf Greyhound Park, the state’s last dog track, the Texas Racing Commission has appealed to the Texas attorney general for assistance in handling about $2 million earmarked for purse winnings in greyhound races.
The money comes from gambling at Texas horse tracks, which are required by state law to pay 5.5 percent of the interstate cross-species earnings to the Texas Greyhound Association, according to the appeal. It is held in escrow by the Texas Greyhound Association and, under state law, must be used “at racetracks in this state.”
But with no races held in Texas since La Marque’s Gulf Greyhound Park closed in June 2020, the money is accumulating with nowhere to go.
“It’s not taxpayers’ money,” Texas Greyhound Association President Billy Galbreath said. “It’s money that, by law, goes to the greyhound industry.”
The December appeal to the attorney general came after the Texas Greyhound Association proposed the money accumulated from March 1, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2021, be distributed to the kennel owners and owners of Texasbred greyhounds that participated in the most recent meet in Texas, the last races at Gulf Greyhound Park.
“These people were harmed tremendously by this closure,” Galbreath said. “They had invested not only years of time but money as well to have greyhounds ready to race in the 2021 meet.”
But others, including Grey2k USA, an advocacy group focused on ending greyhound racing, oppose the proposal. Grey2k USA argued the money would become yearly subsidies for those in the industry.
“It just is incredibly strange,” Executive Director Carey Thiel said.
The appeal to the attorney general seeks an opinion on the legality of giving the $2 million to greyhound owners and whether future distributions would be permitted.
It could take up to 180 days to get an answer.
Declining interest
Interest in greyhound racing has declined in recent years as advocacy groups have sought to have the sport banned.
Florida voters in 2018 banned greyhound racing, leading to the closure of the majority of the country’s dog tracks. Gulf Greyhound Park cited declining interest when it announced the closure in 2020, a moved that effectively ended greyhound racing in Texas.
Although races still are scheduled at Valley Race Park in Harlingen, they likely will be canceled because the park isn’t in condition to host races, said Galbreath, who has no hope greyhound racing will be revived in Texas.
Now, only three states — Arkansas, Iowa and West Virginia — have operational dog tracks, although the tracks in Arkansas and Iowa have said they’ll stop live racing in 2022.
Generational practice
Many of those involved in the greyhound industry have been in
it for generations, Galbreath said.
“We have guys that are in their 50s, but they’ve never done anything else,” he said. “Their parents did it; they grew up doing that.”
The closure of Gulf Greyhound Park, which came with just six months’ notice, was a blow to those who had invested thousands of dollars and years of work into their dogs, Galbreath said. Most found themselves with dogs ready to race and nowhere to go, he said.
It is difficult for breeders and owners to get their dogs into outof-state races, Galbreath said. Tracks are associated with kennels, which provide the dogs that race, he said. To get a dog into
the kennel and therefore into a race, the owner or breeder needs to have a relationship with that kennel, he said.
And in a country where dog tracks are scarce, few kennels have openings to work with new breeders, he said.
“There’s basically no openings because those trainers at other tracks have breeders that they work with in other states,” he said.
Although there aren’t many breeders in Texas, all were harmed by Gulf Greyhound Park’s closure, Galbreath said. And after investing thousands of dollars into raising dogs to race, many have little choice but to adopt them out, he said.
“Luckily, there are a ton of
adoption groups and they’re tremendous in helping us,” he said. “But still, you’ve got dogs and thousands of dollars invested in these dogs.”
The proposals
In proposals submitted to the Texas Racing Commission, the Texas Greyhound Association laid out two ways the money could be distributed.
Under both proposals, roughly $1 million would be divided among the eight kennels that participated in the final meet at Gulf Greyhound Park.
Under the first proposal, which the association prefers, the proportion of money each kennel received would be based on the proportions of purses
paid to each kennel based on race outcomes. In the second proposal, each kennel would receive the same amount of money.
Both proposals divide the remaining $1 million among the 39 owners of Texas-bred greyhounds that participated in the final meet, with each receiving just under $26,000.
The opposition
The National Greyhound Association would prefer the money not be restricted to Texas-based owners and breeders, Executive Director Jim Gartland said.
“That money was earned, so to speak, and made off the backs of greyhound people all over the country,” he said.
Thiel and Grey2k USA worry that because the money will continue to accumulate under state law, the one-time payout might instead become a regular occurrence.
“If you take that to its logical conclusion, it becomes a perpetual subsidy for these 47 individuals for dog races that will never happen,” Thiel said.
And although he acknowledged the greyhound industry has struggled in recent years, setting up a subsidy would set a bad precedent, Thiel said. To prevent that, the group unsuccessfully tried to change the law because greyhound racing no longer happens.
Neither proposal from the Texas Greyhound Association addresses how future funds will be used.
Galbreath said he didn’t know whether the money would be a yearly subsidy. But the money would help those who have been harmed, he said.
“Can you imagine you’re 50 years old, something you’ve done your whole life, and now it’s gone?” he said. “So what are you qualified to do? What job are you going to get?”