Horse Track

North Laurel and Savage residents will finally have a neighborhood supermarket to call their own.The 53,088-square-foot Weis supermarket, slated to open early next month at U.S. 1 and Gorman Road in Laurel, has residents elated."

Keep costs low. Take full advantage of innovations in telephone and Internet betting. Make your racetrack welcoming and pack it with the latest in "virtual reality" games, batting cages and other amusements. Most important: Think outside the box.That is William M. Rickman's prescription for the ailing Maryland horse racing industry, one he hopes to fill in the form of a new two-breed track to be built in Western Maryland.At the encouragement of Maryland House Speaker and Western Maryland Democrat Casper R. Taylor Jr., Rickman has begun circulating a brief written description of his plans for the track and scouting for a site in Allegany County.

John LeVernier Cothorn, a retired high school principal who had a long sideline career as Johnny the Clocker at Maryland thoroughbred racetracks, died Sunday in his sleep in his Pikesville home. He was 89. For many years, he appeared at dawn at Pimlico and Laurel in Maryland and at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. With a stopwatch in hand, he timed horses' morning workouts for the Daily Racing Form, the national newspaper that covers the racing scene. Later in the day, he took his place in the principal's office at Carrollton Vocational School, and later at Cherry Hill Junior High School.

With casinos in Cecil County and on the Eastern Shore up and running, investors are lining up for a chance at potentially lucrative slots licenses in Baltimore and beyond. At least two groups, one from Canada and another headed by a local attorney, have hired Annapolis lobbyists in preparation for the state's reissuing bids for the parlor planned near Baltimore's sports stadiums, a review of state records shows. With an authorized 4,750 slots terminals, the casino would be one of the state's two largest.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will ask the General Assembly to authorize new thoroughbred racetracks, hoping to stimulate competition -- and to settle a political score with Joseph A. De Francis, who holds monopoly control of the sport in Maryland."

Maryland's horse industry had reason to worry when the sale of the Maryland Jockey Club — and with it the Laurel Park and Pimlico race tracks — was short-circuited so that MID, a new arm of Frank Stronach's Magna empire, could buy the properties from the bankrupt Magna Entertainment Corp. The pledges of a new vision for making horse racing viable rang hollow after the first incarnation of Magna failed to make good on the same promises. The announcement today that Penn National Gaming is entering a joint venture with MID to run the jockey club shouldn't come as much comfort; although Penn National started nearly 40 years ago as a thoroughbred track outside of Harrisburg, Pa., the company is now all about slots and table games, with horse racing a distinct afterthought.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening yesterday stood firm in his opposition to slot machines to help Maryland racing, even as the industry's advocates sounded alarms about Tuesday's approval of slots-style gambling at a track on the state's western border.The approval of video-lottery devices at the horse track in Charles Town, W.Va., which is near the Maryland border 25 miles west of Frederick, will not change the governor's position, said Judi Scioli, Glendening's press secretary."No bill that authorizes slot machines or casinos will pass my desk," the governor said in a terse statement released by Scioli.

Pimlico Race Course is rife with fire and safety violations that threaten the lives of 25,000 horse racing fans who attend the annual Preakness, city housing officials said yesterday. The year-old violations, which include a lack of sprinklers, fire alarms and exits, have left the city Department of Housing and Community Development threatening to take track operators to court to force them to correct the problems at the ailing 130-year-old course before the trumpets blare on Preakness Day, May 20. "It was our understanding that these issues were going to be dealt with," said city building inspector John Cole.

Carl A.J. Wright calls himself a "pretty good salesman." He'll need to be if he has any chance of getting support for his pet project - a world-class, state-of-the-art thoroughbred racetrack as part of the Camden Yards sports complex. Wright, 49, has been the chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority since July after being appointed to the volunteer post by his friend and fellow Republican, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. He stepped squarely into the spotlight in late November when he told a panel studying gambling issues that he wanted to put a thoroughbred racing and entertainment complex downtown.

In less than a year, the prospect of saving Maryland's racing industry with an infusion of slots dollars has become something of a mirage. The owner of the state's biggest tracks is in bankruptcy court, the promise of robust gaming parlors is iffy and the future of the Preakness Stakes is fuzzy. And the latest interested buyer of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park wants to build shopping malls on their grassy environs and says he'll pay for the tracks - in cash. After years of debate over legalizing slots in Maryland, voters overwhelmingly approved them (granted, the recession and the state's deep budget woes helped)