Press reports this week indicate the racecourse at Frankfurt is to be closed at the end of the 2015 season.
The track at Niederrad celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, but the future for racing in Germany's main financial centre looks bleak.
The property of some 45 hectares (about 120 acres) belongs to the city of Frankfurt, who are apparently in the process of granting a long lease to the DFB (German Football Association), who will use it as a training and conference centre.
Nothing has been signed yet, but the local press certainly regard it as a done deal and a final decision will probably be made next week.
This is bad news for the German racing industry and Frankfurt is the second major racecourse to close this century, after Gelsenkirchen-Horst in 2003.
The track was very popular because of its central geographical position; the best race run there is the Frühjahrs-Preis des Bankhauses Metzler, to be run this year on May 11 and a major trial for the German Derby.
It has been repeatedly won by subsequent German champions, such as last year's King George winner Novellist, who scored by six lengths in 2012.