They’re Off With Plan for a Norco Race Track

In the last decade, thousands of residents packed their bags and left the traffic and congestion of Orange and Los Angeles counties to move to the Inland Empire.

Many of these intercounty emigres will be the first to admit that they left big-time entertainment behind, but a group here hopes to change all that.

The Golden Empire Racing Assn., composed of co-owners of the Los Alamitos Race Course, has cleared the major hurdle to make way for a new race track and equestrian park that will be built 2 miles north of Norco, the heart of Riverside County’s horse country and just a horseshoe toss away from one of the state’s fastest-growing areas.

Planners predict that the quarter-horse and harness track could be a boon to the area’s economy, pumping dollars into horse-related businesses such as tack and Western-wear shops, as well as restaurants, motels and gas stations.

“There’s really no entertainment out in that area at all, which is really attractive to us,” said Don Galloway, the general manager of the project. “There’s not even a lot of movie theaters.

“It was a natural fit. A very nice fit.”

To be built on a 143-acre site, the 7-furlong track will include an adobe-style, glass-enclosed grandstand and clubhouse, a 60-acre public equestrian center, an exhibit hall, 200 or more horse stalls and a hotel with 200 to 250 rooms.

The area will also have space for concerts and possibly a golf course. The $46-million facility will be the first new track built in California since 1953, when Los Alamitos was built.

The grandstand, to be built on a former broccoli and cabbage patch, would include a satellite betting facility in which visitors could place wagers on races at other tracks.

The track would be owned by Riverside County and leased to the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn., which owns half of Los Alamitos and is led by Ed Allred and R.D. Hubbard.

Allred is also president of Golden Empire, which plans to build the track then donate the facility to the county, which may add some of the financing under an agreement yet to be worked out, Galloway said.

Allred is also an owner of several family-planning and abortion clinics in Southern California. Hubbard also owns tracks in Ruidoso, N.M., and Kansas City, Kan. Earlier this month, he bought 9.9% of stock in Hollywood Park for $11.1 million and has promised a proxy fight.

Golden Empire officials hope to have their plans approved by the end of the year, with construction to begin early in 1991. The first meeting at the facility would be held in the fall of 1992. If proposed legislation is passed, the track would have 38 weeks of quarter-horse and harness racing. Another 38 weeks would be held at Los Alamitos. The track is not yet named.

Plans for the facility were given unanimous approval by the California Horse Racing Board on June 22.

Allred saw a need for the new track after a harness-racing association bought Los Alamitos from Hollywood Park last year, leaving quarter-horse owners with no place to go for a large chunk of the year. The idea is to have quarter-horse racing at one track while harness racing is at the other, Galloway said.

In addition, Allred saw the need to jump into satellite betting--which started in the state four years ago--before competitors got the upper hand, Galloway said.

“The satellite business is the only feasible way to construct a race track,” he said. “They’re too expensive to build and maintain without satellite betting.”

The group selected the western Riverside County site because Golfen Empire officials want a location out of urban areas and away from other satellite betting facilities, such as Indian reservations in San Bernardino County and eastern Riverside County.

“From Day One, everyone knew where it would go,” Galloway said. “It’s really hard to visualize in the state of California a better place for a race track. . . . You can’t take a race track and plop it down in an urban area.”

Many in Norco have greeted the track with excitement, although some expressed concerns that they will have no say over development of the site because it falls within Riverside County jurisdiction.

Visitors to the track “have got to have a place to stay, but the nearest place to stay is Norco,” said Vic Jensen, president of the Norco Horsemen’s Assn. “If they want to get dinner, they are going to want to run to Norco.”

For residents of the area, he said, “it would be fun to have horse racing where you don’t have to fight traffic.”

“It’s definitely going to improve our economy and our lifestyle,” Norco City Councilman Steve Nathan said. “There’s been talk of a track being here for 20 years. Finally, things come together.”

Still, some residents in horse-related businesses have adopted a wait-and-see attitude before declaring the track and Norco a match made in heaven.

“It’s hard really to say” whether it will mean more business for the community, said Kerry Rogers, owner of Norco Ranch Outfitters. “It depends on what happens there. It’s possible they’ll bring a tack shop of their own.”

But he said the new track would add more entertainment to the area: “I don’t think there’s a whole lot to do without driving to Orange County or Los Angeles.”

Galloway said the track, at full run, will employ up to 1,000 people, making it a larger employer than any private business in Norco.

Still, some Norco residents are skeptical about the track’s chances, given its proximity to Los Alamitos. But Galloway said the two tracks could create something of a racing circuit, with quarter horses moving from track to track. However, unlike the thoroughbred circuit that operates out of Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar, racing days at the two tracks and at another facility in Pomona could overlap at some points during the year.

“People who are not in the industry don’t understand that you need these race tracks,” Galloway said. “There’s no way you can exist with just one race track.”

Cypress city officials said the Los Alamitos track, which falls within their city boundaries, has helped their economy and some local businesses, although nothing on the caliber of an amusement park or convention center.

During the next year, Cypress expects to make $540,000 through a .0033% pari-mutuel wagering tax, said the city’s finance director, Richard Storey.

The revenue will make up about 4% of the city’s general fund, he said.

“It would hurt us if we didn’t have it,” Storey said.

Such a tax is also likely to be imposed at the new track, which Golden Empire expects to generate $400,000 a day in bets during its first year, Galloway said.