Balmoral Park, a horse racing track in Crete Township, is pictured before closing in 2015. A representative of the property owners said they want to bring horse racing back to the facility,"but it’s not going to work right now.”
At the Aug. 25 township plan commission meeting, Kavanagh and Kiki Dobrasinovic, Radomir’s daughter, said the longer term plan is to have harness racing return to Balmoral. He said MGR “had a lot of drivers leave and go on unemployment,” noting they’re independent contractors, and that the high price of diesel fuel has also contributed to trucks being idled.
After harness racing ended at Balmoral, the property was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2016 for $1.6 million by New York-based Horse Shows in the Sun, or HITS, which undertook an extensive renovation and conversion to host horse jumping events.