Racetrack

ANNE ARUNDEL County Executive Janet S. Owens should not dismiss her chief of staff, Linda Gilligan, just because her brother-in-law is Michael Gilligan. Mr. Gilligan may be a paid lobbyist for Chesapeake Motorsports Development Co., promoter of a controversial racetrack project, but that shouldn't disqualify Ms. Gilligan from serving in county government.Dismissing Ms. Gilligan over her relationship by marriage would set a precedent that could be carried to the absurd. Any group could conceivably target administration officials and hound them out of their positions for imagined unethical relationships.

Maryland's House of Delegates narrowly approved a bill Saturday that would provide $1.2 million to the owner of a racetrack and casino on the Eastern Shore, setting aside objections from some lawmakers who called it a giveaway to the "one percent. " The bill would divert revenue earmarked for enhancing racing purses to provide operating assistance for the Ocean Downs Race Track, so long as the track has 40 live racing days. It is owned by William Rickman, a politically connected developer.

Havre de Grace. -- This used to be a racetrack town, and there are still people around who remember the racetrack days here, which ended in 1950. Some still talk about the local track with the nostalgia others reserve for their college days.One from that generation was the late Sidney Schreter, a successful necktie manufacturer from Baltimore. As a kid growing up in Havre de Grace he'd galloped horses at the track and had thought about becoming a jockey, but his mother told him that was no occupation for a Jewish boy, and he went into the family business instead.

A task force that has been examining the pros and cons of a proposed racetrack will present its findings tomorrow night to the Havre de Grace City Council. The monthly council meeting is expected to draw a large contingent of residents, including members of Citizens Against Racetrack (CAR).Ruth Hendricksen, CAR's co-chairwoman, will present a petition to the council with signatures of 1,200 people who oppose the track."They're all local residents," she said. "We've concentrated our efforts on people who will really be affected by it."

An automobile racetrack near Havre de Grace could bring tax revenue and jobs to Harford County, but not necessarily to the town, according to speakers at an anti-racetrack meeting there yesterday."

THE BALTIMORE City Council will be making a terrible mistake if it fast-tracks a proposal to turn Pimlico into a horse racing-connected entertainment mecca, thus increasing slot proponents' leverage before next year's General Assembly session. Yes, Pimlico, the aging home of the Preakness, desperately needs a make-over. Its facilities - from stables to seating areas - are in sad shape. But a modernization plan its owners have submitted to the City Council raises troubling questions about the racetrack's future.

Along the residential corridors of west county's Russett community, a collective sigh of relief could almost be heard late last week as residents realized a 54,800-seat racetrack may not end up in their back yard after all.Representatives of Timonium's Middle River Racing Association, which since December has been considering Russett for its proposed $100 million racetrack, now are checking another site in the county, in North Pasadena near Hawkins Point."I'm...

What Willie Rosen has acquired in spending almost 50 years as a racetrack bartender is a fascination for people, a personal study of the passing parade, be they high rollers, have-nots, pretenders, regular players and casual visitors. He caught them in variable moods, either celebrating with a victory toast or drowning their sorrows after being beaten in a photo-finish.He remembers when Maryland's entire racing season numbered only 100 days at Bowie, Laurel and Pimlico with 12-day stops along the half-mile circuit at Upper Marlboro, Cumberland, Hagerstown, Timonium and Bel Air. Now it's full blast year-round, with the schedule confined to Laurel, Pimlico and a brief interlude at Timonium.

Clarence Whye, as he is not known, has never voted or paid a mortgage or had a driver's license or a wife. He never wanted to settle down, so he settled down at Pimlico Race Course, where he's rubbed, bandaged, saddled, blanketed and walked horses from about the time Citation won the Preakness in 1948 to when Point Given won in 2001. All Whye wanted out of life was to take care of horses. "I never rode a horse," he says. "You see people get hurt, and you figure you [are] better on the ground."

MIDDLE RIVER Racing Association is fighting an unnecessary uphill battle to build a 54,000-seat auto racetrack on the site of an abandoned copper refinery.Given the decrepit condition of the Marley Neck site, one would think that the community would look favorably at any proposal to improve it. Instead, irrelevant issues are clouding the discussion.MRRA is partly to blame. It has failed to keep the debate focused on appropriate public policy issues. The latest diversion is whether the proposed track will have NASCAR-sanctioned racing the day it opens.