Entire Excerpt:
“Maryland racing is now owned by a dysfunctional entity that can’t make decisions,” Foreman said. “We’re not going to stand for it anymore. (The MJC plan) was totally unacceptable to horsemen. They understand they may be shut out, but there has never been a greater show of unanimity.”
And that my fellow Michigan Horsemen/Women say’s it all.
They understand they may be shut out, but there has never been a greater show of unanimity.”
Here in Michigan NOBODY stands together on anything, instead they constantly cave in. I know they are not wimps they work their asses off, but my God at some point you must take a stand and say ENOUGH.
In 2010 Owner of Pinnacle said come up with $900K or we won’t open and the HBPA and it’s members paid it from their purses. In September the Michigan Gaming Control Board came at PRC again and said we need an additional $49K to finish the racing meet or be shut down, and again it was the Horsemen that paid. What was even more appalling Pinnacles Owner waited until the second payment to the State was made then came at them with, now you have to pay the $33,000 water bill due to Huron Township or they are going to turn our water off. Now WTF else could the HBPA do at this point after just paying the second ransom of their meet being held hostage? They now also came up with the money to pay the water bill for Pinnacle. Two day a week racing for a 44 day meet. The MGCB had given the 84 race dates for 2010, but then cut them to 33, 8 then 3. The Michigan Horsemen bought back 41 race days. And what has all this diligence gotten them? A closed PRC’s crazed bookkeeper sending off partial payments to Horsemen/Women without itemization to exactly what for and the Balances all say ZERO. Like nobody has anything else coming to them. Pinnacle will not even provide a cell number or answering voice mail system so people can call with their questions and concerns so they can be contacted back.
The bookkeeper wants the HBPA to play secretary. They can call you, then you can call me and then I can call them. I would tell Pinnacle’s Owners and their Bookkeeper what they could do with themselves if I had to go to their front doors and pound on them. ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT. This has gone beyond a day and night year-long nightmare for all. I’m still wondering if any of these people are finally going to lose it or forever cave in. The Horsemen/Women in N.Y. didn’t put up with a fraction of what Mi. Horsemen have put up with-in their State let alone the Track Owner.
N.Y. Stood Together ONE AND ALL and Boycotted One Race and only one race but man did it get some results.
So Maryland Racing Commission Nov. 29 rejected a stop-gap plan submitted by the Maryland Jockey Club and also rejected owner MI Developments’ plan to sell 49% of the MJC to Penn National Gaming Inc. And Thoroughbred racing in Maryland for 2011 is in limbo. ( Hey at least they have a Racing Commission, Michigan’s Governor Dissolved ours ).
The situation threatens full-card simulcasts in Maryland in 2011 because they are tied to live racing dates and horsemen’s approval. Laurel Park is approved for live racing through the end of December.
Also, the third Saturday in May in Maryland is reserved for the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), second leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico Race Course. The track, however, has no dates for 2011 at this time, leaving the Preakness in jeopardy.
By Tom LaMarra
Updated: Monday, November 29, 2010 10:20 PM
Posted: Monday, November 29, 2010 6:45 PM
Thoroughbred racing in Maryland for 2011 is in limbo after the Maryland Racing Commission Nov. 29 rejected a stop-gap plan submitted by the Maryland Jockey Club and also rejected owner MI Developments’ plan to sell 49% of the MJC to Penn National Gaming Inc.
The situation threatens full-card simulcasts in Maryland in 2011 because they are tied to live racing dates and horsemen’s approval. Laurel Park is approved for live racing through the end of December.
Also, the third Saturday in May in Maryland is reserved for the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), second leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico Race Course. The track, however, has no dates for 2011 at this time, leaving the Preakness in jeopardy.
“There is no racing schedule for 2011 in Maryland,” said Alan Foreman, chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and counsel for the Maryland THA. “We don’t even know who will hold the license. No application for dates has been approved.”
The MJC had floated a plan to close Laurel or live racing in 2011 and race 40 days at Pimlico. However, during the Nov. 29 MRC meeting, the MJC proposed racing 17 days at Laurel in January and 30 at Pimlico in the spring to give all parties time to work out a viable schedule moving forward.
The MRC balked and, according to reports, was strongly supported by horsemen and breeders that attended the meeting. Earlier in November, MID chairman Frank Stronach indicated there would be a regular allotment of dates at the two tracks even though partner PNGI said that wasn’t the case.
MID vice president Mike Rogers told the MRC the parties wanted to “give ourselves a little bit of breathing room. The model is broken, clearly. We can’t keep losing money, so we’re hoping to give us a little bit of breathing room, to sit down with all of the stakeholders, this commission, and the horsemen, and come up with a longer-term plan that will have racing in Maryland viable for the year-round.”
Rogers told the racing commission MID is committed to Maryland racing but not under the current economic model.
Said Steve Snyder, PNGI vice president of corporate development: “We are sensitive and appreciate the emotion; appreciate the passion. We share that passion because that is the heritage of our company going back to the early 1970s. We are anxious to roll up our sleeves and come up with a long-term, viable plan for racing in the state of Maryland.”
In the end, regulators, horsemen, and breeders said the stop-gap plan isn’t viable.
“Maryland racing is now owned by a dysfunctional entity that can’t make decisions,” Foreman said. “We’re not going to stand for it anymore. (The MJC plan) was totally unacceptable to horsemen. They understand they may be shut out, but there has never been a greater show of unanimity.”
The MJC devised the Laurel closure plan in October pending the result of a November election in Anne Arundel County, where the track is located, as to zoning for a slot machine parlor at the nearby Arundel Mills Mall. Voters backed the mall plan, dooming slots at Laurel unless changes in the original slots law are made.
Laurel had the fast track for a slots parlor but lost its chance when Magna Entertainment Corp., later purchased by MID, failed to submit a license fee with its application.
PNGI earlier this year announced plans to purchase 49% of the MJC. The Pennsylvania-based company operates the only slots parlor in Maryland and two racetrack casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The MJC is next scheduled to meet Dec. 21. Foreman said that’s too late for horsemen to decide whether to stay in Maryland or leave the state to race elsewhere in 2011. About 1,500 racehorses call Maryland home.
Nothing, Foreman said, will be decided on dates until a decision is made on the ownership of Laurel and Pimlico, as well as the Bowie Training Center.
End
Foreman said that’s too late for horsemen to decide whether to stay in Maryland or leave the state to race elsewhere in 2011. About 1,500 racehorses call Maryland home.
As I’ve stated in another Blog about this situation in Maryland, we here in Michigan feel your pain. This has been our existence this year with a very uncertain outcome as well for 2011. The MGCB gave us the same amount of dates for 2011, but look what they did to us in 2010. And what’s even worst Pinnacle Race Course only finished phase 1 of a three-phase building process. Pinnacle has remained UNFINISHED from 2008 as in only 600 stalls of what was supposed to be 1,200. PRC never built a Grand Stand/Club House, Track Kitchen. My Lord they didn’t even build bathrooms on back side. Only nasty Porta-Johns to use. So we know even more pain than you can imagine.
But unlike Maryland’s Horsemen and Women who are standing completely together as one. Something I’ve stated often again and again only to see them cave in with disgust. Maryland seems to understand if only one thing, as stated in this article.
(The MJC plan) was totally unacceptable to horsemen. They understand they may be shut out, but there has never been a greater show of unanimity.”
And I commend you for it.
If the Horsemen here could only see that this the only way to go forward, because every time Pinnacles Owners jump up and down like screaming brats. Instead of telling them to finally go and F’ themselves. They instead take it in the rear and pay and pay and pay. In reality they have nothing else to lose so personally I would choose to take a stand like N.Y. did and now Maryland and see what happens. The Mi. HBPA have done everything with-in their powers to continue racing, but I wonder in the end will it have all been for nothing in 2011. I cannot see any different outcome then what 2010 brought. And like everyone in both States have now said. IT IS UNACCEPTABLE.
But unlike Maryland, in Michigan there has never been a greater show of people with unresolved and indecisive reasonings. Making them as Dysfunctional as the Tracks Owner. It almost reminds me of a line from one of my favorite Richard Burton movies. Night of the Iguana.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Nothing could be worse for a girl in your unstable condition, to be mixed up with a man in, in my unstable condition because two people in unstable conditons are like two countries facing each other in unstable conditons. The, eh, destructive potential, eh, could blow the whole world to bits! »
You can say that again.
This situation in Horse Racing across this whole nation has became a gigantic sickening mess fueled from Casino’s, but with more States than not resolving the issue at hand with a fair playing field by giving the Race Tracks slots allowing them to not only continue but thrive in both the Tracks themselves and in the States gaining more back in Revenue than imagined. Indiana sure knows these facts to be 100% truth.
Too bad some like Mi. are still stuck in Reverse. Maybe Governor elect Rick Snyder will change that. After all he ran on JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. And there are 42,000 of them at stake if Horse Racing goes down in this State, because that’s how many of them are directly connected to this Industry here.
And maybe the Horsenem/Women here will finally take some lessons from N.Y. and Maryland. Times are hard all over but you can’t continue to let everybody take a dump on you.
They understand they may be shut out, but there has never been a greater show of unanimity.”
Amen to that.
Because I have absolutely no idea what it’s going to take to wake up the Horsemen here.
“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”
STAND YOUR GROUND Alan Foreman and the rest of Maryland’s Horsemen/Women and the best of luck to all of you.
~In other News,
NY Senate Walks; NYCOTB May Shut Down
Related Story,
Battle Lines Drawn in NYCOTB Reorganization
Excerpt:
Officials said they are close to a deal to try to bring New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. out of bankruptcy protection, but that a final agreement is being blocked by several harness tracks in the state.
“We’re not going to allow the harness tracks to take down the entire racing industry and to take down this corporation,’’ said an official familiar with the NYCOTB negotiations.
Harness Tracks a pain in everybody’s ass everywhere.
~
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