In BloodHorse's "At the Track" monthly column, we take a look at some of the unique experiences, events, ideas, facilities, or hospitality options racetracks across the country are using to help increase attendance, experiences, wagering, and connections with racing fans new and old.
On Oct. 18, Rhonda Ward recalled fond memories of when she used to attend Eureka Downs as a child. A lifelong resident of Greenwood County in Kansas, which encompasses the town of Eureka, her father was a rancher who would take her family to the races for a weekend.
"It was a fun atmosphere, family fun," Ward recalled. "It was a treat to get to come. To come to the races on a weekend was awesome.
"Dad would do the betting and, if he won, we got to go to Pizza Hut afterward. We lived so far out in the country, that it was just a weekend, family-fun trip."
Memories of those trips played in Ward's mind Sunday afternoon as she sat in the bleachers at Eureka Downs alongside her husband, Terry. Although, a lot had changed between those family weekend track visits and her attendance in 2026.
In 2011, after two years of running Quarter Horse exhibition races as the last racetrack left in Kansas, financial difficulty led Eureka Downs to close. From then until 2025, the grandstand would be occasionally used for different events, but the track itself became overgrown and the barns and racing offices began to fall apart. The absence of live horse racing, Ward said, felt like a "very big piece" missing from the community.
"To see the track sitting here empty, to see the facility sit out here and the grass grow and not be used, it was heartbreaking," she said.
After seeing the track dormant for so many years, that made it feel extra special to the Wards as they walked through the front doors—which were freshly painted with a mural of horses racing by Abbey Zimmerman—and saw the facility not only looking its best, but also filled with people.
The Wards had attended a rodeo event that was held in the track's infield over the summer, and even the turnaround in the facility from then to now left them astonished.
"It's such an an amazing transformation from the end of July and August until now," Terry said.
"It looks amazing," Rhonda said.
That amazing turnaround was thanks to hours of selfless work by members of the community, a community that was so eager to see racing return to its state and its town that it only took a year to get the track back up and running after Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law a 3% tax on historical horse racing machines at Gilley's Gambling Hall in Sedgwick County. That money went to support the racing operation and breeding fund.
READ: Excitement Builds as Racing Returns to Kansas
Getting the Track in Shape
Mike Weiss, a Florida resident who has held track managerial positions at Beulah Park, Rillito Park, and North Dakota Horse Park, among others, was brought in as general manager to get Eureka Downs off the ground. But when he first arrived several months ago, he couldn't believe what he saw.
"It would be a culture shock to see what it looked like when I walked in the door," Weiss said on Episode 88 of the BloodHorse Monday podcast. "The track was overgrown, the jocks' room was eaten up by termites and tornadoes and burns.
"But it was a slate to wipe clean and say, 'Look, we're going to bring this back, we're going to get some excitement here. We're going to bring it back, not only for the town of Eureka, it really is for the entire state.'"
Thus the renovations began. Locals and horsemen volunteered their time and their resources to get Eureka Downs back in shape.
"A lot of horsemen, their heart is there," Weiss said. "They were so excited that they did dive in and jump in and bring their own tools, their own machines, and help renovate barns. We had to totally gut the racing office, the jockey's room from scratch, the announcer's booth, the racing officials' booth. It's all been rebuilt."
The track surface itself was redone as part of a $2.2 million project, the clubhouse turn adjusted to make it safer and wider, and the finish line moved back 55 yards. That finish line ended up being one of the final pieces, installed just a day before the weekend races began.
All that hard work and effort paid off Oct. 17 as a large crowd waited anxiously to get inside and, once again, witness live racing in Kansas. At several points, the line stretched out of the parking lot and onto the street.
"I was overwhelmed when we walked outside and saw a line out to the street of people still trying to get in," Eureka Downs director of hospitality Skip Anderson said. "It's fantastic. I hope every person here goes and tells six more to come back tomorrow because this has been outstanding."
READ: Packed Grandstand Ushers in New Era of Racing in Kansas
A total of 3,099 guests walked through those doors on the two-day opening weekend, wagering $113,307.
Community Pitches In
Not only did the track have to source the residents of Eureka, which numbers just over 2,200 according to the United States Census Bureau, to fix the facility, but it also needed them to staff it for the race days.
Local bartenders came in to work the races, with some of them then leaving to go to their regular job afterward. Locals also filled in at the wagering windows.
"It was a lot of work to get a facility back in order and we really had a lot of great local help and local sponsorship to get the word out and get people here," Anderson said. "We really relied on those people from the Eureka area and the surrounding areas to make this open."
Meanwhile, local restaurants, such as the Pizza Hut across the street, jumped in to provide food and concessions, taking some stress off the track's management team so it could focus more on the racing product. Now that the repairs have been completed, the track will begin to craft a more permanent structure for things such as its concession stands moving forward.
"From an infrastructure and staffing standpoint, to be able to turn those types of things over to those restaurants and franchises to handle that for us really took the pressure off that portion so we could focus on the track, marketing, promotion, and all the other activities that have to go into bringing a track back after 16 years," Anderson said.
Multistate Crowd Filled with Varying Age Groups
The crowd that appeared for the races was perhaps the biggest sign of hope for the success of racing in Kansas. There were many families present as young kids ran throughout the grandstand, beginning to build those memories around the track such as Rhonda Ward had when she was younger. There were also many younger couples in their teens and 20s present—the generation that missed out on growing up with racing, wanting to check it out.
And, of course, there were the old-timers as well who remembered Eureka Downs back in the day, but not quite like this.
"That was the biggest crowd I ever saw here," said Tom Long, a resident of nearby Hamilton, Kan., who has owned and bred racehorses since 1978.
Long sat alongside his friend and former Greenwood County commissioner Ed Buckle on Sunday afternoon, handicapping races, exchanging local news, and enjoying racing alongside one another.
With his shoulders going bad and having to go to Iowa or Oklahoma to race his horses, Long had dropped his broodmare numbers from 30 to eight when news came that racing would return to Kansas.
"I just quit about five years ago until this deal came up," Long said. "I got on the bandwagon."
Long believes Kansas is a great option for breeders as the land is cheaper than in some of the surrounding states. Currently focused only on Quarter Horses, although he has bred and raced Thoroughbreds before, he now has a pair of horses of racing age as well as three babies on the ground. He also bought an interest in the stallion Apicasso Jess, who stands at Rutland Ranch near Independence, Kan., and bought more mares to breed to him. He expects four more foals next year.
Buckle recalled his commissioner days, making several trips to Topeka in the fight to restore horse racing over the last decade. Although not successful at that time before his retirement, the legislators in opposition changed to ones who viewed racing favorably, and the push for live racing finally succeeded.
"They need to keep talking to the people and tell them what it's doing for the community," Buckle said of how the industry can be successful moving forward. "The community is definitely going to grow from it if they keep this going. If they get more racing days, this is going to be that much better."
The community at the races last weekend came from across the state and beyond. Weiss said there were trailers from Missouri parked in the lot for a few days leading up to the races, while Buckle noted the number of non-Greenwood County license plates in the parking lot. Getting that outside money into Eureka is also a positive.
"All these people bringing in these horses, there's more than 100 horses involved in this," Buckle said. "You take all that and get all the feed and everything; if they keep supporting and keep bringing them in, there's a lot of benefit to it."
Continuing to get track attendees and race participants now that the excitement of opening weekend has passed will fall on the shoulders of the Eureka Downs team. Anderson, who previously worked as director of hospitality at North Dakota Horse Park, believes it will succeed.
"This is a professional sport coming to Kansas. We're really going to try and rely on that idea and play that," Anderson said. "If we do a good job on these first opening few days of this first meet, hopefully it will continue to spread and get better every year."
Should Eureka Downs become a success, it will be a huge benefit to the local community that worked so hard to get it back up and running.
"It's amazing to see it come back and see the support that it's getting the first weekend of racing," Rhonda Ward said. "I hope it continues for the three weekends we have it this year. I hope it continues to come back and we get a longer season next year and the next year. I just hope it keeps progressing."
