Charles Town Races

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- In his 34 years at Charles Town Races, the horse track 10 minutes from Maryland, Dickie Moore has seen nothing like it.People around the racetrack are smiling. They're looking forward to the future. Why? Video-lottery terminals, a.k.a. slot machines.Since September last year, when Charles Town opened its glitzy casino, the machines have sucked up money like a vacuum cleaner. Into the track's 798 machines, patrons have wagered $437 million.Proceeds have elevated racing purses to record levels, financed $50 million in renovations and rejuvenated a failing, 65-year-old track.

Just 10 minutes from Harpers Ferry, this destination offers gambling and thoroughbred racing, as well as dining, shopping outlets and live entertainment. Casino hours: 24 hours a day. Games to play: Table games include: Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Mini-Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Let It Ride, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, Big Six Wheel, Texas Hold 'Em and 30 poker tables. Slots: The Hollywood Casino has 4,000 machines and, coming soon, Breakfast at Tiffany's video slots.

It may be advertised as the "only area appearance," but Lollapalooza's stop at the Charles Town Races hardly qualifies as a local show.Charles Town is 73 miles from Baltimore, and even though the ads claim that the raceway is "only one hour from D.C. or Baltimore," the Maryland AAA suggests that a more realistic driving time is 80-90 minutes.That, of course, is assuming the roads will be clear, but odds are they won't be. There's only one way to get to Charles Town Races, and that's by way of Route 340 (the raceway is just off that road outside Charles Town)

Penn National Gaming is in the entertainment industry, so perhaps the company is going for laughs of late. Its latest claim — that a state commission's concerns over Penn National's efforts to quash slots machines at Arundel Mills Mall is a violation of their First Amendment rights — can't be serious. Company officials must believe they can play Maryland taxpayers for chumps. On the one hand, Penn National holds a profitable license to operate a 1,500-machine slots parlor in Cecil County.

LAUREL -- Racing at Laurel Race Course was canceled early yesterday because of inclement weather.Track president Joe De Francis said hazardous road conditions and the possibility of an unusable track led to the cancellation.The closing was the second this week at Laurel. Track vice president Jim Mango said "we're leaning toward" requesting Monday, March 4, as a make-up for yesterday's card. The program lost Tuesday will be made up Monday, Feb. 4.Laurel was closed for training again, the fourth of the past five mornings the track was unavailable to horsemen.

At least three potential operators of off-track betting parlors attended a meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission yesterday, at which the board started considering rules for regulating OTB facilities.The public meeting took place a day after Gov. William Donald Schaefer signed into law legislation that permits OTB parlors in the state.One procedure seems clear: Applicants for OTB parlors must first negotiate an agreement with the thoroughbred and harness tracks before the racing commission will consider granting a permit.

Activities for horse lovers and horse gamblers abound this weekend with the Fair Hill International in northern Maryland, a Grade III stakes race at Laurel Park and the West Virginia Breeders Classics at Charles Town.The 10th annual Fair Hill International and Festival in the Country takes place today through Sunday at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Area in Cecil County. Events will include dressage, cross country, driving and jumping as well as dog-agility competition, a classic car exhibition and more than 50 vendors, artists and craftsmen.

Red roses, mint juleps, celebrities and the wealthy stylishly attired: The Kentucky Derby will once again prove itself the highlight of the horse racing season. But the glamour to be seen Saturday in Louisville masked the more telling "Hollywood" allure that's increasingly making horses and races the most irrelevant feature of tracks. Penn National Gaming announced recently that Charles Town Races and Slots in Charles Town, W.Va., will henceforth be known as the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

The Maryland racing industry should undergo major changes during the next six months while racing is conducted at Laurel Race Course.Among them will be more simulcasting of out-of-state races. Large portions of whole cards from California and New Jersey tracks could be added at the end of Laurel's daily live-race card -- and the state's first off-track betting parlors should be established.Laurel opens a 62-day fall meet today. The meet runs through Dec. 31 and will then be extended until mid-March.

Highly touted Lindsay Frolic, winner of two of three races in her brief career, heads the lineup for two weekend stakes for 2-year-olds at Pimlico Race Course.The well-bred Florida filly, who has shipped here from Calder, is the likely favorite tomorrow in the $50,000 Toddler Breeders' Cup Stakes after young male horses compete today in the $50,000 Primer Breeders' Cup Stakes. Both races are at 5 1/2 furlongs.Wigberto Ramos is coming in from Miami to ride Lindsay Frolic, whose only defeat was by a half-length in the Riviera Stakes.

If you wanted to play blackjack, poker and roulette on the East Coast, you used to have to drive to Atlantic City. Now you just have to drive to Maryland's borders. That short trip is what Baltimore charter company Superior Tours is betting on. It has begun weekly trips to the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, about a 90-minute drive west of Baltimore. Superior Tours packed two buses for its inaugural trip to Charles Town this month. "We've been taking people to Atlantic City for 16 years," said Marc Komins, an executive vice president at Superior Tours.

Red roses, mint juleps, celebrities and the wealthy stylishly attired: The Kentucky Derby will once again prove itself the highlight of the horse racing season. But the glamour to be seen Saturday in Louisville masked the more telling "Hollywood" allure that's increasingly making horses and races the most irrelevant feature of tracks. Penn National Gaming announced recently that Charles Town Races and Slots in Charles Town, W.Va., will henceforth be known as the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

It's not often a horse who has run in four straight Grade I races competes in a stakes in Maryland. But yesterday, Bending Strings, fresh from major races in New York, snatched the $150,000 Safely Kept Breeders' Cup at Pimlico Race Course with a dominating drive from last place. Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin at Belmont Park, Bending Strings fell far back early before bulling her way through horses in the stretch under Horacio Karamanos, her local jockey, for a 2 1/4 -length victory. The Safely Kept, at six furlongs, was for 3-year-old fillies.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - They still race thoroughbreds at the historic Charles Town horse track. But that isn't what draws thousands of visitors every day to this rural town in the West Virginia panhandle. They come to bet on slots in a facility that has been transformed into a glitzy, Las Vegas-style casino. People arrive by car and bus from Baltimore, the Washington suburbs and elsewhere in the region to try their luck. Last year, they lost $190 million playing slots here. That sum, called the "take," is the money left after players are paid any winnings.

There is great hiking in the hilly terrain around Charles Town, W.Va. Tourists can go tubing on the Shenandoah River, play golf at several public courses or take in auto racing at Summit Point Raceway. History buffs can see the wagon that bore the abolitionist John Brown to his hanging in 1859. Gourmands can feast at the Hillbrook Inn, a charming Tudor-style estate tucked away in the woods. In summer, theatergoers troop to nearby Shepherdstown, where the Contemporary American Theater Festival showcases up-and-coming playwrights.

They compete against each other daily, yet they dress in the same corner of the locker room. Either could finish the year with the most wins in the country, yet if one couldn't finish first, he would root for the other. Ramon Dominguez and Travis Dunkelberger, 24-year-old jockeys, occupy a rare place among riders in America. They compete side by side in Maryland as they battle nationally in the race for wins by jockeys. Dominguez, a smooth-riding native of Venezuela, ranks No. 2 in wins behind the veteran Russell Baze, who rides in Northern California.

Officials at Arlington International Racecourse announced yesterday that the Illinois track will be open next year for a scaled-down 55-day summer meet starting June 23.A week ago, Dick Duchossois, owner of the lavishly appointed track and site of the Arlington Million turf race, said he was closing the track's doors because it would lose too much money next year when it would have to compete with a recently opened riverboat casino about 20 miles away in...

Penn National Gaming is in the entertainment industry, so perhaps the company is going for laughs of late. Its latest claim — that a state commission's concerns over Penn National's efforts to quash slots machines at Arundel Mills Mall is a violation of their First Amendment rights — can't be serious. Company officials must believe they can play Maryland taxpayers for chumps. On the one hand, Penn National holds a profitable license to operate a 1,500-machine slots parlor in Cecil County.

Phil Grove, a retired jockey who won nearly 4,000 races, has been appointed Maryland's third steward for thoroughbred racing. He will begin work Jan. 14 at Laurel Park.Grove, 52, is the clerk of scales in the jockeys' room at Charles Town Races in West Virginia. A lifelong resident of Frederick County, Grove will succeed Jean W. Chalk, who retired earlier this month.As employees of the state, the stewards enforce the rules of racing at the track. Grove joins John J. Heisler and William J. Passmore as stewards at Pimlico and Laurel Park.