The Texas region of Bandera County is located on the Edwards Plateau and has a population of approximately 22,000. It first came to prominence during the Battle of Bandera in the early 1840s when a group of Texan Rangers led by John Coffee Hays defeated Comanche warriors. However, it was a further 13 years before Bandera County became established. Over a century later that a racetrack opened in the region in 1965, known initially as Lost Valley Downs, with a crowd in excess of 1000 attending the inaugural meeting. Meetings continued in this guise for two years, offering a programme of Quarter Horse and thoroughbred racing, but the gates closed in 1967 and the land lay dormant. |
In 1984 the land was sold and after some modernisation it was relaunched as Bandera Downs racetrack on 6th July 1990, taking advantage of the relaxed gambling laws in the state, although competition from nearby Retama Park exposed the fragility of the venture when that track opened on 18th June 1995. After Bandera Downs closed in 1995 the land was used as a training ground, although it remains ripe for development. |
