Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Racing Considered at DeLeon Springs Ranch

May 19, 2008

Wayne and Judy Heller, owners of Spring Garden Ranch, don’t want to get into the pari-mutuel business, office manager Sandy Weis said. They don’t know anything about it. They are, however, open to someone else operating a pari-mutuel facility on their DeLeon Springs ranch, widely known for harness racing and training. A pari-mutuel operation could be housed either in a new building or portable trailer, staff at the rural ranch said.

“We’ve been negotiating with a couple of people interested in doing it at our facility,” Weis said.

Those parties, she said, included a representative of Delaware North, owner of the Daytona Beach Kennel Club. Delaware North has filed an objection with the state to the plan for a horse-racing and poker-room operation in DeBary. Weis, also, objects to the DeBary proposal.

She said she’s been investigating the pari-mutuel possibility for three years, and she’s not happy with “the Iowa people” jumping in at the last minute. The DeBary project, proposed by Green Bridge Co. of Bettendorf, Iowa, could throw a monkey wrench into plans at Spring Garden Ranch.

Weis’ plans include running 50 quarter-horse races a year on the existing track. The quarter-mile straight stretch in front of the restaurant would be conditioned to to make it softer for running quarter horses, then reconditioned for harness racing.

There used to be a lot of quarter horses at the ranch, back in the 1930s and 1940s, Weis said. She also wants to add Standardbred horse-racing in the fall or winter months. If the DeBary operation goes in first, it might squelch this operation, along with any card room. The ranch has one jump on the DeBary project, in that rezoning would not be required.

“It’s in our zoning for horse-racing,” Weis said. A previous manager got the zoning in 1983, and Weis is ready to get racing going.

In 2003, the current owners, the Hellers, bought Spring Garden Ranch, which has been in existence since 1946, Weis said.

“We’re definitely horse people,” she said.

The Hellers have spent more than $250,000 improving the track, and have put more than $4 million into the facility as a whole, she added.

“They’re rebuilding a legend. We’ve had lots and lots of world-champion horses go through there, from all over the world,” Weis said.

She sees a card operation as an adjunct to horses, but fears the DeBary developers see horses as just a means to a card room.