Kentucky Horse Racing Commission approves Ellis Park’s Owensboro expansion

OWENSBORO, Ky (WEHT) – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission approved Ellis Park’s request on Tuesday to build an off-track betting site in Owensboro.

Officials say that the site will be a non-contiguous extension and will have hundreds of historical horse racing machines. Ellis Park officials say the 60,000 square-foot building will be located in the Town Square Mall development.

“We at Ellis Entertainment are incredibly excited to bring our Quality, Value, and Service core values to a new venue in a new market in Kentucky,” said Jeffery Inman, General Manager of Ellis Entertainment. “In addition to this being a major addition to the Owensboro community, we believe the new venue will create $6m to $8m in additional purse money per year at Ellis Park, which will help improve the quality of racing for the summertime leg of the Kentucky Thoroughbred circuit.”

Officials say they expect to create 200 new jobs in the Owensboro community, including more than 100 new construction jobs and over 100 permanent jobs once operations commence.

The park hopes to close on expansion financing later this week. Construction is expected to begin in early 2022 and end in early 2023.

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