Ocean Downs

Jinny Vance and Laddie Dance have yet to return to Earth since their Lemon Drop Kid won the Belmont three weeks ago at Belmont Park."We've been on cloud nine," Vance said from their Taylor's Purchase Farm near Sparks. "It's been great. We've heard from people we haven't seen or talked to in years."Lemon Drop Kid's next start will likely be Aug. 8 in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. That will be a prep for the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 28."He thinks he's the head honcho," Vance said of her handsome colt.

Now that Bally's at Ocean Downs has concluded what its president calls a highly successful summer harness meet, track management is preparing for fall and winter duties.They include working to open an off-track betting facility on the Eastern Shore, advancing the concept of telephone wagering and preparing to lobby state legislators for continued help in sustaining purses."We realize the slots issue will rise again," said Dennis Dowd, president of the harness track near Ocean City. "But slots or no, we still have to do something about purses."

BERLIN -- The children collected the plastic flowers and wooden cross and erected the small memorial. They put it in the ashen ruins of the barn where five horses died this week at Bally's at Ocean Downs, with a note that began:"I sorry for 3 owners of the 5 horses that happened on fire."The simple memorial epitomized the spirit and devotion that for half a century has fortified this summer harness track four miles west of Ocean City.Tonight, precisely 50 years after the first horse-drawn sulkies raced in the sultry night air, the track will celebrate its golden anniversary with races and festivities including a concert by Jumpin' Johnny Sansone's blues band from New Orleans.

Explore marine biologyDive into the world of marine biology on Saturday at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences' Horn Point Laboratory. This year's open house theme is "Exploring Changes In Your Environment: From Microorganisms To Chesapeake Bay and Planet Earth." The laboratory welcomes visitors with self-guided tours, exhibits, presentations and hands-on activities. Scientists, students and staff will highlight current environmental changes. Children will enjoy activities and projects throughout the campus, including a touch tank filled with bay animals.

The summer racing season begins in earnest this weekend with harness racing returning to Ocean Downs, fireworks exploding at Rosecroft and jockeys signing autographs at Laurel Park.Ocean Downs, the harness track near Ocean City, begins its 50th season tonight and its second as the property of Bally's. Physical improvements continue, said Dennis Dowd, president of Bally's at Ocean Downs, but some things never seem to change."Our problem still is slots-fueled purses up the street," Dowd said, referring to nearby Harrington Raceway in Delaware.

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.

Ocean Downs doesn't open officially until next Thursday night, but beginning at 2 p.m. tomorrow, the harness track near Ocean City will run 11 non-betting races.The races will feature amateurs as well as professionals driving horses from throughout the East Coast.Admission and parking are free, and the new owners, Bally's Maryland Inc., will offer discount hot dogs and beer as well as live music.After opening night, Ocean Downs will conduct racing Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sept.

That villain the slot machine has Ocean Downs by the throat.The harness track near Ocean City has lost more than 200 horses to Harrington Raceway in Delaware since slots-rich Harrington opened last Sunday."

WHEN THE MARYLAND Racing Commission convenes today, it should not rush to judgment on the knotty question of who profits from simulcasting out-of-state races at new off-track betting parlors. Too much harm could be done if the panel makes the wrong decision.Instead, the commission should follow the suggestion of Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. -- let the General Assembly decide.Bally Entertainment Corp., the giant gambling company, wants permission to build a fancy OTB facility in Hagerstown and keep the racing proceeds for itself, without sharing profits with Maryland's thoroughbred track owners.

Fireworks at Rosecroft Raceway, the Coasters at Ocean Downs, a jockeys' sack race and stakes worth nearly half a million dollars at Laurel Park -- those and more highlight racing this holiday weekend at three Maryland horse tracks.Ocean Downs opens its 40-night summer harness meet tonight under new ownership. Now owned by Bally's Maryland Inc., the track near Ocean City will race tonight through Sunday, and then Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Sept. 7. Post time is 7: 15 p.m.Racing purses have increased 75 percent -- from $10,000 a day last year to $17,500 this year -- mainly because of a $5,500-a-day infusion from the state lottery.

The approval Wednesday of the first slot machine gambling license in Maryland is more than just an important milestone in the long-running debate about gambling in the state. The grant of a license for Ocean Downs is also the first promising sign we've seen in more than a year for the state's coffers. A temporary facility with as many as 800 machines could be running in time for next summer's tourist season in Ocean City. That may not make much of a dent in a $2 billion budget shortfall, but it helps.

OCEAN CITY - The dusty harness track in Berlin, with its minor-league charm and horse-and-buggy night races, is no threat to the tourism juggernaut on the beach five miles away - and that's just how Ocean City business and political leaders want to keep it. But if Marylanders vote in November to legalize slot machine gambling, Ocean Downs is the likely site for a 2,500-machine casino, a prospect that conjures nightmares in the minds of town officials, who...

For nearly 50 years, the names of Frank and Mary Ellen Gunther have been synonymous with Baltimore philanthropy and voluntarism. They sat on numerous boards and led fundraising efforts for religious, educational, cultural, medical and political organizations. They were the first husband-and-wife team to head a United Way campaign in 1976. And over five decades, they have probably digested more rubber chicken dinners at fundraising functions than any presidential candidate. "We decided when we turned 70: No more boards," said Mary Ellen Gunther from her Ocean City home, where the couple has lived full time since giving up their Guilford home in 2002.

COLONIAL BEACH, Va. -- The Maryland Racing Commission yesterday urged the state to place slots at Laurel Park and Ocean Downs, the only two tracks eligible under legislation approved during a special General Assembly session last year. Allowing slots would increase foot traffic and boost the tracks' handle, the commission said in endorsing a two-page statement during its monthly meeting. Voters will consider in November whether to amend Maryland's constitution to allow 15,000 slot machines at five sites - one each in Baltimore City and in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Cecil and Worcester counties.

Less than two weeks after Maryland lawmakers excluded Rosecroft Raceway from a list of sites that might get slot machines, Penn National Gaming announced yesterday that it has dropped its bid to buy the struggling harness-racing track in Prince George's County. The company, which owns Charles Town Races and Slots in West Virginia and several other gambling venues in the U.S. and Canada, announced its intent to buy the Fort Washington standardbred track this fall, just as Gov. Martin O'Malley was beginning his push for a special legislative session to legalize slots.

Maybe it's the streets that go in circles. It took me multiple trips to Annapolis to figure out State Circle and its adjacent little sibling, Church Circle. 'Round and 'round she goes, I used to think as I made my second or fifth pass around one of them, where she'll stop, nobody knows. Funny, that thought has been going through my head as I've followed the very special session that the General Assembly has been having lo these three weeks now. This week, the House has been churning over slots.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and top legislative leaders predicted yesterday that they could finish the General Assembly's special session by this weekend, but a late move to change the potential locations of slot machine parlors showed that the consensus around the governor's multibillion-dollar package of tax increases, spending cuts and expanded gambling remains tenuous. A key House subcommittee voted last night to remove a proposed slots location from Ocean Downs racetrack near Ocean City and substitute a site in Frederick County.

Jim Mathias has lived in Ocean City long enough to remember when the big issue was whether to let a McDonald's or a 7-Eleven or some other intruder into town. The one-time mayor and city councilman also remembers the brouhaha over whether to keep the traffic lights on in the winter when OC returned to its sleepy, small-town self, rather than just during the busy summer tourist season. Change comes slowly and often with great angst to Maryland's summer playground, where much of the appeal is familiarity - the same hotel you went to as a kid, the same boardwalk, the same Thrasher's fries and Fisher's caramel corn, year after year, generation after generation.

BERLIN -- A fast-moving fire aided by strong winds destroyed a barn and killed one horse at the Bally's Ocean Downs raceway yesterday, officials said. A security guard at the raceway saw the smoke and flames and alerted fire officials about 5:20 p.m. Almost immediately, trainers and other personnel moved to save the seven horses in Barn F, the most southern in a cluster of about a dozen barns on the grounds in Worcester County. Six horses were led out safely. One fought to stay; the horse's body was found later in the charred rubble.

BERLIN - If there's a cloud of uncertainty hanging over this 55-year-old harness racing track, you couldn't tell it watching Corey Furey and her kids whooping it up along the rail as eight standardbred trotters and their drivers thundered past the grandstand. Ten-year-old Alanna Furey has turned into a surefire handicapper. She bet $2 on the No. 3 horse because that's her soccer number. Her winnings: $2.40 and a chance to try again on the next race. This is the third year in a row that the family, which vacations in nearby Ocean City, has traded a night on the boardwalk, miniature golf and other resort attractions for an evening of racing at Ocean Downs.