Beating out three other applicants, Century Casinos Europe GmbH, a subsidiary?of Century Casinos Inc., won approval to own, build, and operate a new ‘A’ horse racing facility, to be named Century Mile, in the Edmonton area. The announcement was made on Monday by Horse Racing Alberta.
The new facility, which is expected to cost approximately $50 million and to be completed in 2018, will be situated between the RedTail Landing golf course and the Edmonton International Airport. Century Downs’ racing manager Paul Ryneveld said, “With our arrangement with the government and the history of horse racing in Edmonton, horse racing has the potential to be great again. “We just need the stability and this new facility will provide that. The focus will be on getting Alberta horse racing breeding and ownership back to where it used to be,” according to the Edmonton Journal.
Century Downs (pictured) located in Alberta and opened last year, is also owned and operated by Century Casinos, and will be used as the model for the new gaming and horse racing facility. The new track will be unique in that it will be the only one-mile horse racing track in Western Canada. Century Mile’s stabling will be able to accommodate some 800 horses and the gaming and entertainment center will have 1,100 slot machines, the maximum allowed in the province.
Construction on the new facility will begin as soon as possible, according to Ryneveld, who said, “If things go well, we will get some work started by the end of the year.“ The racing manager added, However, I tend to be a realist and don’t expect actual dirt movement to begin until the spring of 2017, which would mean that actual racing will begin in the third quarter of 2018. “Century Downs broke ground in March of 2014 and opened April 1, 2015. A year of construction is realistic,” as reported by the news agency.
Seven groups originally submitted applications to build the new facility, and by the beginning of September, that number had been narrowed down to four.
Formerly known as Century Management und Beteiligungs GmbH,?Century Casinos Europe GmbH is based in Vienna, Austria. Century Casinos Europe GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Century Casinos Inc.