It’s not just Evanston where big things are happening in Wyoming’s horse-racing sector.
At the opposite end of the state, Cheyenne is racing toward a new milestone for Wyoming’s burgeoning horse-racing industry — its first, full, 1-mile racetrack. Thunder Plains should be ready for inspection in August, its owners say, and ready for 16 race days this year, beginning the first weekend of October.
That racing, however, will proceed under a new owner.
Bally’s Corporation, which operates 20 gaming properties across the U.S. and U.K, including a 1-mile racetrack in Colorado, has taken majority ownership of the Thunder Plains racetrack from Wyoming developers Bill and Will Edwards.
The Wyoming Gaming Commission unanimously approved transfer of the racing permit from Cowboy Racing to Bally’s last week.
Once construction is complete, Bally’s will return a 20% minority stake to the Edwards, who told Cowboy State Daily this has been a passion project for them.
“We thought the next logical step in Wyoming’s evolution of building a horse-racing industry was a full-size track, and Laramie County would be the optimum site for it,” Will Edwards told Cowboy State Daily.
“So, we wanted to be the ones to bring it to Wyoming," he said. "And we knew that once we planted our flag in Wyoming, in Laramie County, with a new full-size track, it would attract a lot of out-of-state investment and interest from the out-of-state horse-racing industry into Wyoming.”
That vision, in fact, is what drew Ballys to the project. The international company's experience will supercharge the project, Edwards added.
“Shannon Rushton, the director of Bally’s Arapahoe Park, has lifelong experience in the industry, and he actually knows a lot of the operators and players in Wyoming too,” Edwards said.
“Bally’s represents new investment into the state — significant new investment into the state — which is really necessary for the success of the track in terms of purse money. And that money, eventually goes to the horsemen and the horse industry," he added.
What’s Left To Do
Bally’s has experienced personnel, who, Rushton told Wyoming’s Gaming Commission, will be coming up to help staff up the first season of racing at Thunder Plains.
Bally’s envisions purses of $100,000 per day, for a $1.6 million, 16-day season, Rushton added, and will strive to complete the track in time for the race days that have already been designated for Thunder Plains this year.
“Our intention is to have everything completed by the first of August, so the state can come in and do what they need to do as far as inspections,” Rushton told the Wyoming Gaming Commission last week. “I know that’s a very aggressive timeline, but I think folks who know me, know that when I take something on, I take it on full speed, and I have every intention of making that happen.”
Rushton’s only caveat to that was if a “cow-killing blizzard” came along in March or April.
“If we would happen to have a cow-killing blizzard in March or April and slow things down, we may need to come to you folks and say, ‘Look we can’t make it happen this year,’ but I will guarantee we will make it happen in 2027. But we have every intention of racing in 2026.”
Rushton’s timeline shows horse barns being delivered the first week in May, with stalls delivered mid-May.
The number of stalls will be limited the first year, given the timeframes, Rushton acknowledged. His plan is to have 400 stalls for the first race year. After that, another 600 stalls will be added, bringing the total to more like 1,000.
“These barns are 80 by 250 feet,” he said. “And they will be an open-air type of barn. That’s what we have at Arapahoe Park. I prefer that just because I think it helps prevent sickness in horses. If you get too many in one enclosed barn, you tend to have problems, so I prefer the open-air concept.”
Racing Cushion Is Next
The Edwards, meanwhile, are acting as general contractors for the development on everything besides the barns.
The track is nearing completion, Bill Edwards told Commissioners.
“We’ve had a decent winter, but we have had wind,” he said. “Laramie county has just been a wind tunnel. But, in spite of that, additional progress that I wasn’t necessarily planning on making has been made.”
This puts the project a little ahead of schedule, which could help create a little bit of wiggle room in the event of future weather events.
“Grading is basically complete, meaning there’s some fine grading left to be done for some of the custom locations for various buildings,” Bill Edwards said. “The front gate and security fence … has been staked and the contractor was actually starting on that before this cold turned in.”
Installation of the security gate and fence will take two more weeks, after which the site will be secure.
“All of the roadways are complete and graveled and ready to go for the track itself,” Bill Edwards said. “All of the fine grading is completed and ready to go for the racing cushion to be installed.”
The racing cushion is a custom aggregate mix, which has been developed with the help of experts in the horse racing industry.
“We have worked with three different soil testing companies, including a professional from here in Cheyenne,” Bill Edwards said. “We now have a good recipe for it, and we’ll have some imported material to make that perfect recipe for our area.”
That process is to begin in the next two to three weeks and will take about six to eight weeks to complete.
“This is finer material that takes quite a bit of water to lay down,” he said. “And wind is an issue, daily, a frustrating thing, but we’ll get through that.”
Electricity — which is what derailed the project last year — appears to be a bit ahead of schedule this time around. That’s going to be a 480-volt, three-phase system that can handle not only the track, but future improvements that may happen at the track as well.
Envisioning A Future Circuit
Bally’s is a large corporation that operates around 20 casinos total in the United States and the UK, as well as its lone horse racing track in Colorado.
Rushton told Cowboy State Daily he met the Edwards at a racing symposium in Arizona and that they’d continued to stay in touch since then.
“I found out they were possibly looking for someone to partner with to help them complete their project in Wyoming and help them take it to the next level,” he said. “So, we got Bally’s involved and one thing led to another.”
Bally’s Colorado track is about 100 miles from the one under construction in Wyoming and is seen by Rushton as serving the same market in different time frames.
“It’ll be a little bit of a circuit-type situation,” he said, one that he is looking to connect with existing horse racing events in Wyoming.
“That’s our plan, as we try to fit everything into one continuous circuit, so it benefits the horsemen,” he said. “They’ll have the best of all worlds.”
Wyoming’s timing, Rushton added, is good, with other states closing down their horse-racing tracks. Building a full, 1-mile-long track, meanwhile, is a big signal to the national horse-racing industry that Wyoming is taking the sector seriously.
“This is an exciting time to be involved in Wyoming, because it’s doing some really great things up there,” he said. “And it’s an opportunity for the horsemen to be extremely successful, as well as the tracks, and that’s a tough combination to find any more in today’s racing world.”
The equine boom that’s happening in Evanston is something he believes likely to spread across the state, Rushton added.
“The possibilities are endless in Wyoming right now,” he said. “I think they are at the cusp of something really big in the state.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
