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November 7, 2016

Want to buy a harness track? Scarborough Downs could be yours for $7.5M

The 66-year-old Scarborough Downs horse track is for sale with a price tag of $7.5 million, and its owners say that it’s unlikely that the 483-acre facility will continue to be a harness track once it’s sold.

The Maine Sunday Telegram spoke to Denise Terry, vice president of finance at the Downs, who told the paper that the track is struggling with low attendance numbers as it tries to compete with the increased popularity of casinos and online gambling. To make matters worse, many of the track’s facilities are in rough shape, including its now mostly empty horse barns, which are dilapidated and leaking, according to the Sunday Telegram

The operators of the track told the Sunday Telegram that attendance has taken the largest hit, citing a recent weekday race that drew roughly 60 bettors who wagered slightly more than $2,500 in total, meaning that the track made about $250. That’s a far cry from the record-setting attendance of 9,133 people set on June 29, 1980, or the highest single-day wager record of $508,000 set on Sept. 6, 1987, according to the Sunday Telegram.

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