The Wyoming Gaming Commission approved Wyoming’s first mile-long horse-racing track for 16 live race dates in 2025, as well as simulcasting and related activities.

The first racing season at Thunder Plains Park will feature temporary structures, but the essential components, including barns, racing officials’ tower, video patrol towers and spectator areas, will be in place.

The track, located 10 miles east of Cheyenne at Thunder Plains Park, will host its inaugural race day on Friday, Aug. 1, with additional race days to follow on Aug. 2, 3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29-31 and Sept. 1. Dates are subject to change per the Wyoming Gaming Commission.

With its convenient location along I-80, the track is set to draw racing fans from neighboring states in the mountain west region, as well as local fans from Cheyenne and surrounding areas.

“As a fifth-generation Wyomingite, being able to bring this track to our state carries a lot of meaning,” said Ryan Clement, managing partner of Thunder Plains. “Thunder Plains sees an incredible opportunity to create a positive impact not only on the Wyoming horse racing industry but also the area’s economy, in terms of new job opportunities and tourism revenue.”

Through partnerships with elite industry veterans and horsemen, Thunder Plains looks forward to bringing high-quality, high-caliber racing to Laramie County.

“We’ve established a strong partnership with 1/ST, North America’s pree-minent Thoroughbred racing, entertainment and pari-mutuel wagering company,” Clement said. “They’ve set the standard for horse safety across the nation, and we’re looking forward to bringing that strong emphasis on safety and track protocols to Wyoming.”

Of the partnership with Thunder Plains, 1/ST Technology senior vice president Jeff True said he sees exciting opportunities ahead.

“1/ST has a long history of operating premier racetracks and premier racing events across the country. We are thrilled to be entering the Wyoming horse racing market together with our local Wyoming partners, and we look forward to lending our expertise to help grow Wyoming horse racing.”

For all simulcasting operations, 1/ST will leverage the expertise of its affiliates at Monarch Content Management, AmTote International and PariMAX.

“Our racetrack will be operated with numerous horse safety and welfare protocols in place,” Clement said. “The track itself, being a mile long and eighty feet wide, dramatically improves horse and rider safety. Throughout track design and construction, we collaborated with Dennis Moore, a renowned track-surface specialist, to ensure the safest, most high-quality racing surface.”

Moore’s professional history includes designing and building world-class racetracks across the county, as well as consulting on track safety projects at racetracks across the country and around the world. Moore’s projects have included the racing surfaces at Santa Anita Park, Del Mar, Lone Star Park, Remington Park and in Dubai, among others.

Future plans at Thunder Plains Park include building a regional equestrian center and establishing a high-altitude horse training and breeding program.

CASPER, Wyoming — Between 1847 and 1868, more than 60,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed through what is now Casper on their overland trek to Salt Lake City, crossing the North Platte River at a spot not far from the new Casper Wyoming Temple.

Most early members came across the plains without severe incident, but members of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies of 1856 suffered starvation, exposure, death and other ordeals. A significant event was the 1856 Sweetwater River rescue in Central Wyoming, in which young men carried desperate pioneers across the freezing water.

One of those young men was David Patten Kimball, great-grandfather of Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“My grandfather, Crozier Kimball, explained to me that one of the reasons these young men were heroic was because they were following the prophet,” said Elder Cook. “He taught me that following the counsel of the prophet in our own day would be equally heroic.”

Now, Latter-day Saints in Casper will participate in that kind of heroism by rescuing their ancestors through temple work.

On Sunday, Nov. 24, Elder Cook dedicated the Casper Wyoming Temple in a single 10 a.m. session broadcast to all units within the Casper temple district. It is the Church’s 201st dedicated and operating temple.

Serving 15,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 50 congregations within its district, the Casper Wyoming Temple is the state’s second dedicated and operating house of the Lord, following the Star Valley Wyoming Temple, which was dedicated in 2016. The Cody Wyoming Temple, which was announced in 2021, held its groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 27, 2024.

Elder Cook said there are great blessings for those who engage in the work of redeeming the dead, particularly in regards to a person’s own ancestors.

“I believe that the youth of the Church will have greater protection from the adversary if they immerse themselves in searching for their ancestors, preparing their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to receive the ordinances of baptism and gift of the Holy Ghost, or act as a witness,” Elder Cook said.

Saints in the temple district have currently been traveling to the Fort Collins Colorado Temple or the Bismarck North Dakota Temple.

Casper Wyoming East Stake President Steven D. Higginson said, “Not only is it going to be wonderful to be close to a temple to do ancestral work, but so many more of our members will have the opportunity to serve inside the temple as temple workers,” he said. “The blessings will be just as important for those who did not have that opportunity before.”

During the two week open house from Aug. 29-Sept. 14, 27,000 people came to tour the temple.

Beth Worthen, a long-time Casper resident and chair of the temple open house committee, shared the community’s warm reception. She’s spoken with locals, civic leaders, business leaders and others who feel that the temple brings peace to the community.

“It’s our responsibility to keep talking about the temple and the feelings that it gives us and the transformational power that it holds, so that people in our community are continually reminded of that and see how it can fit into their lives,” she said.

Read more about today’s dedication in the Church News.

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Wyoming’s economic outlook is mixed for 2025, with a continuing decline in the coal industry, shortages in housing and child care, and an aging population clouding the state’s mid- and long-term growth prospects, according to a new University of Wyoming report.

The Center for Business and Economic Analysis in UW’s College of Business issued its second annual Wyoming Economic Forecast in conjunction with the Governor’s Business Forum.

“The year ahead for Wyoming holds many opportunities and challenges, including finding solutions to current binding constraints for growth — housing affordability for workers, challenging transportation and connectivity resulting in constrained access to markets, a thin and complex labor market, and the brain drain in our higher-education graduates, among others,” the report reads.

Still, the report predicts a slight increase in the state’s labor force in 2025, with just a small increase in the unemployment rate to 3.2%, lower than the national rate. And the state’s population is expected to increase slightly.

The UW economists used the large-scale structural economic forecasting model Moody’s Analytics, along with conversations with Wyoming and regional business leaders, to develop the economic outlook report.

Among the positive signs for Wyoming’s economy:

• Employment in natural resources and mining is expected to rise slightly in 2025, along with increases in wholesale trade; construction; manufacturing; retail trade; transportation and utilities; financial services; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; information services; and professional and business services.
• The continuing decline in employment, wages and the coal industry’s contribution to the gross state product are offset somewhat by a relatively strong outlook for other natural resources, including trona and rare earth elements.
• There are strong business startup numbers, along with growing manufacturing clusters, most notably in Sheridan and Casper.
• Wyoming ranks No. 2 nationally in science and engineering degrees as a percentage of higher education degrees conferred, with 45.8% of the awarded degrees in those fields compared to the national average of 35.7%.
• Venture capital disbursed per $1 million in gross state product in 2022 was $16,149.76 versus the U.S. average of $9,898.93; dollars disbursed per venture capital deal totaled $11.49 million, ranking Wyoming No. 5 nationally versus the U.S. average of $10.14 million per deal.
• The rate of patents has increased significantly, with 15.18 patents per 1,000 individuals in science and engineering occupations, up from the historical range of four to 12 patents per 1,000 people in those fields.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, new business applications in the state were up 25% between September 2023 and September 2024. Wyoming also recently was ranked as the sixth-most entrepreneurial state in the nation by The Digital Project.

On the other hand, economic headwinds include:

• A continuing lack of quality, affordable housing.
• Rising property values that are pinching many Wyoming homeowners, although Wyoming residential property tax rates are still among the lowest in the nation.
• Continuing lack of access to child care for workers.
• Continuing lack of mobility for business travelers, with numerous winter closures of highways and some reductions in airline service.
• Lack of reliable internet connectivity, with 18.5% of Wyoming locations currently unserved by any broadband provider.
• A relatively low college-going rate, with only about half of Wyoming high school graduates pursuing higher education.
• Continuing outmigration of college-educated young people, with around 37% of UW alumni still living in the state among graduates between 2007-2024.
• The growth in the state’s population will be driven primarily by people ages 45 and over, with the populations of residents 0-4, 5-19, 20-24 and 25-44 years old expected to decline.

“The implications of our aging population are broad reaching,” the report reads. “The K-12 school-age student population will be impacted in both the near- and long-term; the workforce necessary for economic growth and the number of potential entrepreneurs and small-business owners will decline. In addition, by 2031, the high school enrollment of the state is expected to decline by 5.6%, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.”

People can read the full Wyoming Economic Forecast online here.

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