Derby Lane Owner: Development Of Valuable Real Estate Likely Will Include Gambling

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA — It was business as usual Thursday at what the locals still call Derby Lane.

A handful of old men in carrels intermittently chatted about their doctor appointments and cursed at greyhounds in West Virginia because they hadn’t done what they wanted.

The poker room, the first-floor focal point of this now-defunct dog racing track rebranded as Win! Derby, was steady for the middle of the afternoon. 

All around, there were noticeable changes to the veneer of a place that first hosted greyhound races in 1925, saw its struggling live racing business end when the sport was made illegal in Florida in 2020, even served as the backdrop for a few scenes in Ocean’s Eleven.

Some of the changes have been subtle since new owner Rally Development took over when its private equity backer merged with the old St. Petersburg Kennel Club and transferred it to acquire the 131½-acre property in April.

There’s the new logo. The new name. There’s fresh paint. There will need to be a new sheet of drywall by the stairs because someone seems to have punched it.

The most striking change, however, has nothing to do with the new owners, but seems oddly prescient at this juncture of the property and track’s existence. The iconic Derby Lane sign that once adorned the main entrance, ravaged in October 2024 by Hurricane Milton and never replaced, feels in its absence like a precursor of the future of this massive property near several arteries that span Middle Tampa Bay and lead to Tampa to the east.

New owner sees gambling remaining

Developers have dreamed of Major League ballparks, amphitheaters, and condominiums, even on a plot of land prone to severe flooding.

Increasingly coveted as Pinellas County became more development-dense and such huge parcels of developable land vanished, the site has been eyed for change since the crowds began vanishing during the twilight of the greyhound era.

But Sagi Genger, the CEO of Rally Development, told St. Pete Catalyst that the gambling operation there is “doing extremely well,” attracting 16,000 weekly, making him currently inclined to keep the simulcast and cardroom operations no matter what eventual assortment of mixed-use projects rises there.

“I think it would require a very, very unusual set of circumstances where we don’t keep the gaming business on the site,” Genger told the media outlet.

(Win! Derby would not make Genger, the son of Israeli agro-chemical tycoon Arie Genger, available for an interview with Casino Reports.)

“We’re trying to figure out what other businesses would complement it,” added Genger, who is part of investor group Bay State Racing, which has attempted to build a horse racing track in Massachusetts. “An amphitheater may very well be an important addition. But all sorts of retail opportunities are there, too.” 

There is hope among employees and patrons that the gambling vestiges of Derby Lane will remain.

Some employees said they have received preliminary information from Rally suggesting that acreage could be set aside to perpetuate the gambling operation. 

Among the patrons, there are rumors of Rally saving one section of the superstructure for the cardroom and parimutuels before razing the rest, or moving both to a new property. Florida statutes require the simulcast and cardroom operations to stay in the same facility, and moving them would require zoning considerations and local approval. Previous ownership has complained about how zoning limited development options.

Watching a Wheeling Island simulcast and smiling after hitting a trifecta, an elderly man didn’t seem worried.

“Whatever happens, it’s going to be five years,” he said.