A champion thoroughbred racehorse with a tremendous bloodline has landed in Wyoming, the first of what industry insiders tell Cowboy State Daily is likely to be many.

It’s all thanks to rapidly growing buzz around Wyoming’s horse racing industry now that Kentucky Downs’ ECL Entertainment has bought into the state and a new horse-racing, off-track betting company called Thunder Plains is building a 1-mile track near Cheyenne. These two things together are setting imaginations in the world of horse racing on fire.

The horse relocating to Wyoming is called Finnegans Wake, and he’s owned by a California horse trainer and racing steward named Eddie Rich.

Rich told Cowboy State Daily he decided to move Finnegans Wake to Wyoming for a couple of reasons. First, the racing scene in Northern California seems to be on a steady downward spiral. Second, and more importantly, Wyoming horse racing seems to be a big up and comer in the industry.

“You guys have a one-mile racetrack being built about 10 miles east of Cheyenne pretty soon,” Rich said. “And I see a future in racing there, where we don’t have much of a future in Northern California.”

That 1-mile oval, the first in Wyoming, is being built by Thunder Plains, which was started by Wyomingites Ryan Clement and Will Edwards with the mission of bringing the first, full-size track to their home state. It was the size of that track that convinced Rich that Wyoming finally means business when it comes to professional horse racing.

A mile-long oval can handle thoroughbreds, Rich said, and is a game-changer for the entire state.

“That track is going to help Wyoming horse racing,” Rich said. “A lot of people haven’t focused on Wyoming races because of the smaller tracks.”

Wyoming Horse Racing Suddenly Has Buzz

Rich isn’t the only one in the state who is noticing the buzz around Wyoming horse racing.

Frank Lamb, GM of Wyoming Downs, which owns a racetrack near Evanston and offers off-track betting facilities at 17 locations in Wyoming, said the buzz he’s hearing right now in Tucson, Arizona, at a thoroughbred training facility is nothing short of amazing, and it’s all about what Wyoming’s horse racing industry.

“Within a couple of weeks there will be 30 head of horses training here,” he said. “Right now, there’s about 20, but more are coming. And they’re all telling me that they’re all going to Wyoming to race.”

The training is happening in Arizona due to the weather right now, Lamb added.

“They’re getting ready down here and then, in May, they’ll load these horses up and head to Wyoming,” Lamb said. “And that’s just one example. There’s many others.”

Wyoming Downs’ racetrack is also near Bear River, where Finnegans Wake is headed, to the Wolfpaw Stables, owned by Samantha Scheffler.

“Samantha was very instrumental (persistent) in assuring me that I had the right person to help Finnegan get rolling in Wyoming,” Rich said. “She’s very much the positive go-getter. Her transparency really made me more confident about betting on Wyoming.”

Wyoming Downs is owned by ECL Entertainment, owner and operator of thoroughbred horse racing track owner Kentucky Downs. ECL recently also purchased 307 Racing, and now owns both horse-racing franchises. These will be run as separate LLCs, Lamb said.

Other racing franchises in the state include Wyoming Horse Racing, which leases a track in Rock Springs, and recently opened the Horse Palace in Cheyenne. It is building a second facility near Evanston.

And then there’s also the brand-new Thunder Plains Park project underway near Cheyenne.

“The growth of Wyoming horse racing has been phenomenal,” Lamb said. “To go from basically nothing — I mean we’d lost racing by 2010, 2011. There was no racing those two years. “Basically, what we did was go to the legislature back in 2013 and said, ‘Look, if we do this, we can bring racing back,’” Lamb continued. “And that’s what we’ve done.

Weather A Restricting Factor

Wyoming Downs will add a few racing days this year, Lamb said, but he believes the sport probably has about as many racing days right now as the weather is going to allow.

“We’re racing from the middle of May to the end of October,” he said. “When Wyoming Downs first opened, we raced from Memorial Day to Labor Day and, in 1985-86, we got snowed on, on both ends of that.”

But there’s still room for an extra day or two here and there, he added.

“Wyoming Downs is going to run three days a week, which normally we run two days a week,” Lamb said. “And so, we will have Racing Fridays the entire month of July.”

Friday makes a good addition to the weekend, where other days are iffy as far as attendance.

“We want to attract a crowd,” Lamb said. “We want people at the races. So, we’re working on ways to do that.”

Saving A Special Bloodline

Rich discovered Finnegans Wake in a paddock not too far from where he lived, when he was seeking stud service for a mare. He was blown away when he did his homework by the horse’s bloodlines.

“He has a pedigree that is pretty special,” Rich said. “He’s a son of Powerscourt, and there are no other stallions in the United States from Powerscourt, who was a champion in Ireland.”

The family that owned the horse wasn’t really interested in breeding Finnegans Wake at the time and, ultimately, decided to get rid of him. After checking on some of the horses’ foals, and seeing how many wins they had, Rich realized that fortune was smiling on him a bit. This horse was an unknown, he was not “fashionable” yet, but Rich felt he really should be. If someone who understood horse training — and how special the bloodlines involved were — would just take a chance on him.

“I’m a bit of a romantic,” he said. “I love the game, and I love the history of thoroughbred racing. And so, this might not be the best business decision — if I were just looking at it from the economic side I probably wouldn’t invest — but this is a special horse, and if he’s not at stud, then the Powerscourt’s line disappears (from America).”

The sire of the brood mare for Finnegans Wake is also pretty special, Rich added.

“It’s Silver Ghost, which a lot of people don’t know about, but he was probably one of the fastest sons of Mr. Prospector,” Rich said. “And so that would also disappear.”

Rich, who has trained horses for 34 years, feels like he knows a special horse when he sees one, bloodlines or no. That, more than anything, is what prompted him to bring the horse to Wyoming, where he sees a better future for horse racing on the horizon, and a better chance for Finnegans Wake to carry on his world-famous bloodline.

“I’m not giving up on Finnegans Wake,” he said. “I want to see him succeed or at least have the opportunity.”

More Stars Likely To Show Up

Lamb believes Wyoming will see a lot more special studs showing up, attracted by what is now a multi-million breeding fund that pays out to owners of studs when they stand their horses up in Wyoming.

“When anyone goes into an off-track betting ability in Wyoming and plays the historic racing games, 0.4% of that — because it’s all parimutuel, just like betting on a live horse race — goes into the breeders’ fund,” Lamb explained. “And then we disperse that to the breeders of horses bred in Wyoming.”

That payment is broken into three parts.

“There’s 40% for the owner of the horse, 40% for the breeder of the horse, and 20% for the stallion owner of the horse, if (the horse) is standing in Wyoming.”

While in the early days, the breeding fund only had $20,000 to $30,000 to divvy up, these days it has more like $6 to $7 million. That’s a very attractive kitty, which Lamb believes is going to lure some very nice horses to Wyoming.

“He’s a nice horse,” Lamb said. “No question. He’ll be one of the top sires in Wyoming. There was one other horse who came to Wyoming last year of similar quality named Dennis’ Moment, and he’s in Cheyenne.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.