Pari-Mutual wagering was approved in Colorado in 1948. In 1950 Colorado's first facility Centennial Race Track opened in Littleton Colorado just outside of Denver. Billed as the "Santa Anita of the Rockies" it never lived up to expectations and went out of business in 1983.
In 1965 a second track Pikes Peak Meadows opened south of Denver in Colorado Springs. It too had little success having several tries before being turned into a race car speedway in 1993.
A third track Arapahoe Park was opened in 1992 in the Denver suburb of Aurora is still running but even with the banishment of dog racing in Colorado (the reason Centennial failed) it has not had much success and seems to be hanging on year to year.
Colorado does not have racinos. Harness racing was run at Centennial for a short period but didn't generate much interest!
In 2011 Arapahoe Park was the only remaining pari-mutual venue in
Colorado once dog racing was banished in 2008. Though there are casinos
in Colorado there are no racinos. Arapahoe is scheduled for live racing
in 2012.
Not much has changed since the original page, racinos are still not a part of the Colorado horse world and Arapahoe Park is the only active track in the state, running a mixed thoroughbred, quarter horse meet from May to August. Centennial Race Track in Littleton, shows no sign it ever existed, now a housing development and golf course. The fairground in Brush is still there but no sign Memorial Park existed and the last track, Pikes Peak Meadows is now a car racing track. Anyone who went to the races there, would probably not recognize much today.
Colorado once had a strong contingent of dog tracks that doted I-25, starting with Cloverleaf, in Loveland, north of Denver. Then came the granddaddy the Mile High Kennel Club, located in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, the neon, one dog would run effortlessly through the night on the side of the grandstand, beckoning passers by to stop in. Then it was south to the Rocky Mountain Kennel Club in Colorado Springs. The last stop on I-25 was the Pueblo Kennel Club in Pueblo. The only oddball was the last dog track built in Colorado, The Interstate Kennel Club, which was located on I-70 east of Denver. It is doubtful any of these places still exist.