Dog racing entrepreneur Funk dies at 63

Friday, July 29, 2005 | 8:41 a.m.

Dog racing was in David J. Funk's blood, even though early on in his career the son of a legendary greyhound track operator did not always get the best jobs.

"Dad saw that I came up through the ranks," Funk said in a recent interview. "My first job was scooping dog poop off the track. It didn't get a lot better for a while."

But eventually it did get a lot better for Funk. He became general manager of the family's Yuma Greyhound Park and Prescott Downs thoroughbred horse racing track in the 1960s and brought greyhound racing to Southern Nevada in 1981.

David J. Funk, who with his late father, David K. Funk, and late brother, Albert Funk, opened Las Vegas Downs off Boulder Highway in Henderson and later with another family member started a string of photography studios, died July 9 at his home in Popotla, Mexico. He was 63.

The cause of death for the Las Vegas resident of nearly 20 years was not released. His family said he had undergone major heart surgery eight months earlier but had been recovering.

Funk's family operated dog and horse race tracks in Arizona, Florida, Colorado and Oregon from the 1940s to mid-1980s. Early on, David's father ran the Caliente Race Track in Tijuana, Mexico, the first combination dog-horse track in North America.

David J. Funk played a role in the family's development of the first electronically issued daily double wagering tickets and the creation of the "Big Q," a daily double for the last two races of a 12-race card to encourage bettors to stick around for the entire program.

When Albert Funk died in 2002, David J. Funk became the last remaining Funk family member to have been involved in greyhound racing.

In a 2003 interview, he lamented the closing of Las Vegas Downs after just two seasons, noting it was just bad timing for a dog track here.

Blaming high interest rates, Funk said: "It wasn't that the facility couldn't be profitable, it's just that it was the wrong time. Timing is so important.

"It was very hard to walk away from the deal, but I couldn't spend the money any longer. I was damn near broke."

Las Vegas Downs opened on Jan. 15, 1981, with a 12-race show. A crowd of 5,000 fans packed the 3,500-seat facility. But the success of that night was never repeated. Crowds dwindled to less than 1,000 a night, and the track eventually closed without having ever held a horse race.

But the track's failure did not sour Funk on Las Vegas. In the early 1990s, he opened his first portrait studio in Las Vegas with his brother-in-law Monte Kobey. That was followed by a string of studios throughout the Southwest.

Born Nov. 19, 1941, in Phoenix, Funk grew up on a citrus farm. When he was a year old, his family went into the greyhound racing business and eventually opened six tracks in Arizona.

Funk graduated from Scottsdale High in 1959 and briefly attended Pepperdine University before leaving school to join the family business, where he helped open tracks in Pensacola, Fla., Grand Junction, Colo., and Portland, Ore.

After becoming vice president of the family's Arizona tracks at Apache, Yuma, Amado , Black Canyon, Tucson and Phoenix, Funk came to Las Vegas in 1973 to lay the groundwork for the Southern Nevada facility.

After leaving Las Vegas in the early 1990s, Funk lived in Los Angeles and San Diego before moving to Mexico in 2003.

In recent years, Funk has served as a greyhound racing historian to preserve the history of the sport and promote his family's pioneer involvement in it.

He is survived by his wife, Cindi Funk; a brother, Richard Funk of San Diego; a sister, Charlotte Kobey Morton of La Jolla, Calif.; and Cindi's children and grandchildren.

Services were in Popotla.

The family said donations can be made to the Anthony Robbins Foundation, care of the Anthony Robbins Companies, 9888 Carroll Center Road, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92126.