“Racing is struggling, but I think there is a future in racing. We have to be positive,” Racing Commission Executive Director Tom Sage said.

Last winter, Sonic Boom won a three-horse race over a muddy, makeshift 660-foot track at the former State Fair Park to satisfy the state requirement for simulcasts to continue in Lincoln this year. The simulcast facility there closed in September and the grandstand is now being razed to make room for Nebraska Innovation Campus.

The Lincoln Race Course, which currently doesn’t have a track, must hold one day of racing sometime this year for simulcasts to continue in Lincoln in 2015. Tentative plans call for the construction of a one-mile track on what is now a farm field next to the new simulcasting building near the intersection of U.S. 77 and West Denton Road.

Lincoln Race Course General Manager Christy Harris said a date for the race has not been set and the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association is working on plans to fund and build a new track. She said the group is weighing options on whether to build a temporary track at this point or push ahead with a permanent track, or at least a portion of a permanent track.