Bally

The battle over the future of Maryland horse racing is being waged in an unlikely place -- a strip shopping center on U.S. 11 outside Hagerstown.It is there that the huge Bally casino-hotel company wants to topple the status quo in state racing with its proposal to open an off-track betting operation that would directly compete with Maryland's powerful thoroughbred industry.While several of the nation's biggest casino companies have hired lobbyists to patrol the State House, Bally is the first to make a multimillion-dollar investment in a state gambling enterprise, having already purchased an Eastern Shore harness track and acquired an option on another near Washington.

THE LAST THING MARYLAND'S horse-racing industry needs is a bitter internal dispute that inflames passions and divides loyalties. Yet that is what's happening, thanks to the decision by Bally's, the giant casino company that owns a small Eastern Shore harness track -- Ocean Downs -- to seek permission for its own off-track betting facility in Hagerstown and to keep all the proceeds for itself.That would cut deeply into OTB profits for Laurel and Pimlico owner Joe De Francis. The loss could be $3 million a year, which now helps offset deficits when there is live racing at the throughbred tracks.

Sending shock waves through the state's thoroughbred industry, Bally's Maryland Inc., the new owner of Ocean Downs, has applied for permission to open an off-track betting facility in Hagerstown.Revealed yesterday at a meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission, the move launches what thoroughbred-racing insiders fear could become a battle between Bally's, owner of the harness track near Ocean City, and the Maryland Jockey Club, owner of Pimlico and Laurel Park, for control of horse racing in the state.

The Maryland Racing Commission approved yesterday a request by Bally's Maryland Inc., the new owner of Ocean Downs, to operate a 40-day harness meet from July 3 to Sept. 7.The track near Ocean City will race at 7: 30 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with three exceptions. Those three: Opening week will be Thursday through Sunday, the track will race on Labor Day, and the final week will be Friday through Sunday.The racing commission also granted the owners permission to simulcast races the rest of the year.

Despite predictions of a bleak future for Maryland's harness ++ industry, the Maryland Racing Commission voted unanimously yesterday to allow Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc. to operate the financially troubled Rosecroft Raceway.The commission voted to issue Cloverleaf a license, but ordered its leaders to submit quarterly financial reports beginning April 15. Cloverleaf's financial prospects are less than golden, its own leaders acknowledged. But those leaders and members of the commission agreed that they're brighter since last week's deal with Bally's Maryland Inc., a subsidiary of the casino and hotel giant.

Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc. reached an agreement yesterday with casino giant Bally's Inc. that includes the sale of Ocean Downs and a change of management at Rosecroft Raceway.Just 24 hours earlier, Cloverleaf, an organization of harness horsemen, had rejected a scheduled deposit from William Rickman Jr., owner of Delaware Park, to purchase both tracks after its board had voted unanimously to accept Rickman's buyout.The agreement with Bally's removes the threat of possible legal action by the casino firm had the horsemen sold to Rickman.

The Rosecroft and Ocean Downs harness racetracks appear ready to change hands. But who is going to end up with them is unclear.Representatives of Cloverleaf Enterprises, the horsemen who own Rosecroft Raceway and Ocean Downs, met yesterday with the Rickman family, owners of Delaware Park, about an impending purchase.The tracks' directors have voted to accept Rickman's offer.However, Bally's Entertainment, which has been managing the tracks since last year, says it has a deal to purchase them from Cloverleaf.

A new player has emerged in the sale talks surrounding Rosecroft Raceway and Ocean Downs.William Rickman, owner of Delaware Park Race Course, has offered Cloverleaf Enterprises, Inc., an organization of Maryland standardbred horsemen, $13.5 million to purchase outright both of the struggling tracks."

The board of directors of Cloverleaf Enterprises, Inc., has rejected a counteroffer by casino company Bally's to bail out Rosecroft Raceway and Ocean Downs."

The casino operator whose bailout proposal for the state's harness tracks was rejected by track owners this week will continue to talk to them, but is losing patience with the process."