Page 88 - December2022

Rod’s leadership experience has contributed to his ability to keep Oregon racing alive. “I’ve seen changes and a lot of controversy in racing, and ownerships of racetracks that, for one reason or another, have quit or given up or changed. Over the years, I’ve been through six different managers of Grants Pass Downs, which is the Josephine County fairgrounds,” he says. “And when it comes down to it, it’s who’s at the
helm that determines the outcome: whether it’s somebody who cares and likes horse racing and sees the economic value of it, or not.
“For years, Portland Meadows was the flagship,” he adds. “We all said we had to keep Portland Meadows but there was always talk in the background that they were going to close; they were having trouble, losing money. Finally, it really happened.
“In the meantime, there was always talk that the only other place in Oregon with the facility to have a successful commercial racetrack would be Grants Pass Downs. Then in 2019, Portland Meadows sold to a trucking company and at that point, I was working as a contractor for Travis
“Boersma. So, I went to Travis because he’d been involved in racing for some time as a supporter.
“You can really feel the energy when people are up and screaming for their horse to win. It has that hometown feel of closeness. And I like the camaraderie of people coming to the track with their families and having fun, especially when the pony horses come up to the fence for the kids to pet.”
– Rod Lowe
I asked if he’d be interested in making Grants Pass the new commercial race meet, and he was.
“He did a great job fixing things up and putting millions of dollars of his own money into it, building it up to the point where it is now, but then in April 2022, we were faced with another controversy, and he decided he no longer wanted to be involved.”
That controversy involved Oregon’s casino owners, who wanted to keep the entire wagering pie, and convinced legislators that historic horse racing machines were illegal. Without the HHR machines, the economic viability of Grants Pass Downs became uncertain, so Travis gave up on the commercial race meet and license in 2022.
The state’s racing organizations and stakeholders, including the Oregon Racing Commission (ORC), the Oregon Quarter Horse Racing Association (OQHRA), the Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association (SOHRA),
the Oregon Thoroughbred Owners and
Breeders Association (OTOBA) and the Oregon Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA), decided to financially back Southern Oregon and bought the equipment from Travis’s TMB Racing to be able to put on a race meet.
They united to put on a seven-day race meet in 2022 and are finalizing details for the coming season as well. “Now, we have to see where we can get some other support to keep horse racing going in Oregon,” Rod says. “If we lose the commercial racetrack in Oregon, I feel like we’re going to lose all racing in the state.”
Since then, Rod has worked with OHPBA to create the Horsemen’s Racing Association, LLC (HRA) as of July 2022. “We are now managing all 10 of the OTB [off-track betting] racing sites in Oregon and have a 20-day
meet in the works for Grants Pass Downs in 2023,” says Rod, who has been named the organization’s CEO.
The group is now working on legislative actions in hopes of rebuilding the state’s racing industry. “We’d like to get it back tothe35or36dayswehadwithTMB Racing,” Rod says. “We’re going to need some help from the state or other sources of revenue to do that, and different places have done different things to make that work: HHR, taxes that go toward racing, and other ideas. We just have to figure out what works for Oregon.”
86
SPEEDHORSE December 2022
Rod receiving a belt buckle for 20 years of service as the
SOHRA President.
Charlotte Anglin Photo
“