Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen & Woman in same boat as Michigan’s. Both States also running neck and neck in Stupid.

Maryland Horsemen Fighting for Race Dates

Unbelievable story here because the residents of  Anne Arundel County instead of voting for Race Tracks to get slots, they voted to give zoning to a Shopping Center for Slots? And now two groups are fighting.

The MJC ( Maryland Racing Commission ) is 51% owned by MI Developments and 49% owned by Penn National Gaming Inc., which owns the only slots parlor operating in Maryland and has lucrative gaming holdings in neighboring West Virginia and Pennsylvania. MID chairman Frank Stronach has said Laurel will race in 2011; partner PNGI claims it won’t because of prospective losses.

The situation has created uncertainty for horsemen, breeders, and the about 1,500 racehorses based in Maryland.

“This needs to be resolved before Nov. 29,” Alan Foreman, chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and counsel for the Maryland THA, said Nov. 19. “We’re at the mercy of two out-of-state powerhouses that can’t decide which way to go. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place trying to influence what happens.”

All I can say is we here in Michigan feel their pain.

Entire Article

By Tom LaMarra
Updated: Friday, November 19, 2010 8:22 PM
Posted: Friday, November 19, 2010 6:32 PM

With a Dec. 1 deadline on racing dates looming, Maryland horsemen are advocating a schedule similar to that of 2010 even though a shutdown of Laurel Park for live racing and training is on the table.
The Maryland Racing Commission will meet Nov. 29 to award dates. The Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel, had devised a plan for 2011 based on the outcome of a Nov. 2 referendum on slot machines; the vote in Anne Arundel County didn’t go its way when residents approved zoning for slots at a nearby shopping mall.

The day after the vote, MJC officials indicated it was possible—not definite—that Laurel wouldn’t host live racing next year. The plan calls for 40 days of racing at Pimlico Race Course, closure of the Bowie Training Center, and use of Laurel for full-card simulcasts only.

The MJC is 51% owned by MI Developments and 49% owned by Penn National Gaming Inc., which owns the only slots parlor operating in Maryland and has lucrative gaming holdings in neighboring West Virginia and Pennsylvania. MID chairman Frank Stronach has said Laurel will race in 2011; partner PNGI claims it won’t because of prospective losses.

The situation has created uncertainty for horsemen, breeders, and the about 1,500 racehorses based in Maryland.

“This needs to be resolved before Nov. 29,” Alan Foreman, chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and counsel for the Maryland THA, said Nov. 19. “We’re at the mercy of two out-of-state powerhouses that can’t decide which way to go. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place trying to influence what happens.”

Laurel traditionally races from January through mid-April, August, and September through December. Foreman said having only a 40-day meet at Pimlico is a non-starter.

“Having only a 40-day meet is unacceptable,” Foreman said. “It will destroy racing in Maryland. We’re trying to keep the 2010 schedule in place for 2011 so we can all take a deep breath and figure out where we go from here.

“To dramatically cut back to 40 days and have everyone relocate is the worst of all words.”

The state law governing slots was designed to award one of five licenses to Laurel, but Magna Entertainment Corp.—now MID—failed to submit a license fee with its application, so it was disqualified. The MJC pursued various options to get the license, but they ended with the Nov. 2 vote.

Laurel could get slots if the law is amended; the MJC has said it may lobby for such action. In the meantime, Maryland racing is eligible for revenue from in-state slots parlors: 7% to purses and breed development and 2.5% to tracks for capital improvements.

The PNGI slots facility in northeastern Maryland is the only one open. Ocean Downs, a harness track on the Eastern Shore, is building a slots casino. The other three are earmarked for the Arundel Mills Mall near Laurel, Baltimore, and a state park in western Maryland.

In its first full month of operations, the Hollywood Casino at Perryville in October generated $797,628 for purses and $284,867 for racetrack improvements. In total, almost $1 million has been raised for purses, leading to questions of how the money will be spent if Laurel were to shut down.

End

What in the world? How can people be so stupid and more so totally SELFISH?

This is the action of mental illness. They would rather give Zoning to a Shopping Center and put an entire industry of thousands of people out of jobs. Cause nothing but complete panic, fear, stress, uncertainty and cause depression and for what? A stupid selfish unthoughtful act. This is so senseless I can’t find the words to define the hardship these idiotic residents just caused an entire Industry of the hardest working people on the planet. How can anybody justify such a deranged twisted thought process, but more importantly WHY?

Why would these residents do this? Don’t they understand that they could have not only saved Thoroughbred Horse Racing in their State, yet still reaped the benefits in Revenue by voting to give these race tracks slots. The tradition of the Triple Crown and the Prestigiousness of that 2nd leg of that race means nothing to them. How utterly sad for all.

Yet in another Article,

Penn National reaffirms plan to cut Laurel racing | Baltimore Business Journal
by Rachel Bernstein
Date: Friday, November 19, 2010, 5:19pm EST

Penn National wants to trim racing at Pimlico and cut meets at Laurel Park. Penn National Gaming Inc. said Friday it will forge ahead with plans to file a request for reduced racing at Pimlico Race Course and termination of live racing at Laurel Park starting next season.

The reaffirmation comes despite the company’s co-owner of the tracks, MI Developments, seeking to keep live racing at Laurel for at least another year.

Eric Schippers, a Penn National spokesman, said in an e-mail the company met Wednesday with MI Developments and Gov. Martin O’Malley as part of ongoing discussions. The two owners are scheduled to appear at a Maryland Racing Commission meeting on Nov. 29, a meeting where the groups are expected to announce plans for the next racing season.

The two groups met with O’Malley to discuss how to progress the racing industry in Maryland, said O’Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec. While no deals or arrangements were struck at that meeting, Adamec said all parties were accepting of the result of a slot machine facility coming to Arundel Mills in Hanover.

No future meetings have been scheduled to further discuss the issue, Adamec said.

The Maryland Jockey Club had previously said it will need to cut racing from the track because of a Nov. 2 voter referendum in Anne Arundel County allowing the Cordish Cos. to build a slots parlor at Arundel Mills mall.

The jockey club had hoped the county would vote against the referendum, opening the door for them to pursue a slots parlor at Laurel. Penn National (NASDAQ: PENN) said without that potential revenue it can no longer subsidize Laurel Park, which has been losing money for the past several years.

End

And yet in another part of Maryland a Harness Track Ocean Downs is planning on building a Casino.Ocean Enterprise 589 LLC at Ocean Downs Wins First Maryland Slots Approval

 Berlin, MD, September 23, 2009 — Ocean Enterprise 589 at Ocean Downs won state approval today to offer slots at Ocean Downs Racetrack, making it the first organization in Maryland to win the endorsement of the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission.

“We are very pleased to win approval,” said Ocean Enterprise 589 LLC President William M. Rickman Jr. “We thank the state of Maryland , the Maryland Lottery Office, the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission, the residents of the state and everyone who has been involved in the slots effort for making this day possible.”

“With the approval, I believe this ushers in a new era of Mid-Atlantic cooperation,” said Rickman. Ocean Enterprise 589 will immediately move forward with plans to convert Ocean Downs’ existing 34,000 square foot grandstand into a gaming area. The new casino is expected to be completed by Memorial Day 2010 and will initially house up to 600 slot machines. The remaining 200 approved machines will be added within one year of the casino opening.

Approximately 265 employees will be needed to staff the Ocean Enterprise 589 slots operation, with hiring for management positions expected to begin later this year, Rickman said.

“We expect that most of our team members—and many of our customers—will be from the local vicinity: Worcester County , Ocean City and Ocean Pines,” he said.

The approval for Ocean Enterprise 589 will add jobs at a time when jobs are needed and will benefit both the residents of Maryland and the state horse racing industry Rickman said.

End

So in some parts of the State of Maryland a Harness Track can have slots, yet a county got to decide the Thoroughbreds fate?

Even More disturbing and totally F’D up. This is the only way I can describe this entire sickening situation.

As I stated the Thoroughbred Horsmen/Women of Mi. feel your pain more than you can imagine. Pinnacle Race Course was given 84 racing dates for 2010, then the MGCB ( Our great Governor dissolved our Racing Commissioners Office and put us under Gaming  ) cut the 84 dates to 33 to 8 to 3. The Mi. HBPA had to buy back 41 race days with their purses. Then in Sept. the MGCB came at them with more demands, pay another $49,000 to finish what was left of the two-day a week meet. In total it cost the HBPA about a Million Dollars for the 2010 meet.

Believe me when I say WE FEEL YOUR PAIN. WE KNOW YOUR PAIN. And our future is as uncertain as yours. And nobody in Michigan gives a rats ass about us either, but hopefully with a new Governor one can only hope.

I mean here a Race Track is already a gambling establishment and instead of them getting further gaming to allow them to continue an Industry to work, crazy people tell them go F’ themselves. We are voting for a shopping center to get them instead. And two Out of State entity’s fighting. Again like Michigan when Gov. Engler told Ladbroke to get lost and they did. They bulldozed our Track to the ground. DRC was replaced by a shopping center then the city that DRC created went into the toilet. They begged for what they got. But the Horsemen were the biggest casualty. Same scenarios with Horsemen/Women in the middle.

Insanity.