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nounced the purchase of about 100 acres for the new Lincoln Racecourse.
• This is the last year for live racing at the city's current track, which is closing to make way for expansion of the adjacent University of Nebraska.
• Racing in the state, and nationwide, has been fighting a losing battle against other forms of gambling since the 1980s. Industry leaders in Nebraska say they sustained a major blow this year when Gov. Dave Heineman vetoed a bill that would have legalized historic racing machines. Those machines, which would have been placed only at racetracks, would have allowed patrons to bet on any of thousands of previously run races in North America via video terminals.
• Backers hoped the revenue could be used to build a Lincoln racing facility all at once. As it is, the HBPA, which also owns and operates Horsemen's Park in Omaha, will build it one piece at a time with the goal of ending up with a one-mile track, grandstand and stables for 1,000 horses.

• The Lincoln project is seen as a possible lifeline for a sport that dates to 1935 in Nebraska.
• "If we lose Lincoln or Omaha's market, then I think that has potential to be catastrophic," Nebraska State Racing Commission chairman Dennis Lee said. "Omaha's market is safe. Lincoln is a question mark, and I'll breathe a lot easier as a regulator when I hear of concrete plans for a racetrack."
• The new Lincoln Racecourse will be the first track built in the United States since Pinnacle Race Course near Detroit in 2008, accord

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