Owners meet to discuss Kentucky track’s future

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

The partners - Keeneland, Harrah's Entertainment and Dreamport, a subsidiary of lottery giant GTECH - each own one-third of the northern Kentucky track. Dreamport indicated last week it wants to sell its shares. Keeneland and Harrah's have first dibs on buying out Dreamport.

"In terms of Turfway, it's business as usual here," said Turfway president Bob Elliston as he was preparing for the opening of the race meet Wednesday evening.

The track in Florence has been profitable, but not terrifically so, the partners said.

"It has been profitable, but when I talk about profit, we're talking less than $1 million so far this year," said Gary Thompson, spokesman for casino giant Harrah's Entertainment. Harrah's also owns Players Bluegrass Downs in Paducah.

Keeneland could be interested in buying Dreamport's shares, said its president, Nick Nicholson. "They'll put a price on what they think their partnership is worth. Let's see what price they set," he said.

Nicholson said no one has received official notification that the stake in the track is for sale.

While Harrah's, a $3.4 billion company, has been happy so far with Turfway, "it hasn't been on the top of the radar screen," said Thompson.

Harrah's is "interested in anything that is beneficial to our shareholders. We'll take a look at our different options and decide what's best," Thompson said. "We'll look at things in a big-picture context and if there is potential for future developments, that could be taken into consideration."

Bob Vincent, vice president of business development for Dreamport, said the company "is looking to- in some rational, logical way - divest itself. ... We haven't talked to the others yet about selling it."

Vincent would not comment on price.

When the three bought the track in 1998 the price was $37 million. Since then, millions more have been poured into making the track successful.