Racing Dates

FIFE, Wash. -- Citing indifference to their efforts by the Washington State Racing Commission, backers of a Thoroughbred racetrack in Fife have abandoned their plans to build a $55-million facility in Pierce County.Dan Absher, spokesman for Fife Thoroughbred Racing Management, said his group also will abandon a lawsuit that sought to overturn the commission's decision to award racing dates to a group trying to build a track in Auburn, located south of Seattle. Fife is located east of Tacoma and southwest of Auburn.

LAUREL -- Despite official racing dates that show few days off between meetings, most transfers between Maryland tracks next year will have at least a one-day break in the action.The Maryland Racing Commission approved the 1991 schedule at its monthly meeting Wednesday. The lineup followed the general pattern of dates disclosed several weeks ago by Joe De Francis, president of Laurel and Pimlico Race courses.The main difference between the 1990 and 1991 racing calendar is one fewer meeting at Pimlico.

Six horses were killed when a fire swept through the barn of trainer Nancy Heil in Potomac on Thursday night.Among the casualties was Fighting Notion, one of Maryland's top sprinters in recent years and at one time the six-furlong record holder at both Pimlico and Laurel Park.Fighting Notion still holds the Laurel record of 1:08 for the distance, set in July 1992.In the 1992 Preakness, he led until the field approached theTC eighth pole and wound up fifth behind Summer Squall.0 No other details were immediately available.

Pimlico's racing schedule has been chopped by 10 days next year.The opening of the spring meet at the Baltimore track has been delayed from March 15 to March 25. The live racing dates, which will be run instead at Laurel, could mean a loss of nearly $30,000 in parking and admissions taxes to the financially strapped city government, Doug Brown, an official with the Department of Finance, has estimated.But during that period, Pimlico still will operate as an inter-track simulcast center and generate some tax money for the city.

A legal dispute that has delayed the sale of Rosecroft Raceway is starting to have an impact on the harness track's operations -- and on the fortunes of the horsemen who race there. The managers of the Prince George's County track say they are looking to slash the purses paid to owners of top-finishing horses and might be forced to pare their racing schedule. Tom Chuckas, chief executive officer of Rosecroft, said the track had counted on the $55 million deal with Indiana-based Centaur, Inc. being completed within the first six months of this year and made spending decisions based on that assumption.

The first million-dollar program in Virginia thoroughbred racing history highlights the 2004 meeting at Colonial Downs, the track in New Kent, about 25 miles east of Richmond, which opens for seven weeks today. Three stakes events on the state-of-the-art Secretariat Turf Course, including the Grade III, $500,000 Virginia Million, highlight the card on July 10. Co-featured will be the Grade III, $200,000 All Along Breeders' Cup and the $200,000 Virginia Oaks, a new event at 1 1/8 miles that is restricted to 3-year-old fillies.

The Maryland Racing Commission and the horse community are right: The Maryland Jockey Club, MI Development and Penn National have no commitment to racing ( "Preakness at risk," Dec. 1). MID, a real estate firm, just wants to commercially develop Laurel Park. Penn National just wants to protect its casino at Charles Town and maybe get another casino by threatening to end Maryland racing. Success at Laurel would threaten these interests, so no wonder it is failing. Racing dates belong to the state.

This time next year, instead of gearing up for fall racing after Timonium, Maryland horsemen may be settling back home after Virginia'sfirst-ever summer meet.The owners of Colonial Downs, the track under construction in southern Virginia, have requested racing dates for next year: June 15 to Aug. 23. Laurel and Pimlico would close except for simulcasts those months. Instead, Maryland horsemen would race at Colonial Downs in what's been described as a Saratoga-type meet featuring exquisite turf racing.

The Maryland Racing Commission yesterday again scolded Magna Entertainment Corp., horsemen and breeders for being less than speedy in negotiations toward working out racing dates for 2006. It then gave the three parties until Dec. 1 to resolve an expense-sharing issue that has bogged down negotiations. It also asked Magna officials to prepare an expense report by that date, detailing the cost of operating the Maryland tracks on live and simulcast days. That report will be used by the commission to find an equitable cost-sharing figure if the three parties fail to resolve the issue by then.

IT'S OFFICIAL. The endless slots debate has killed Maryland as a major horse racing state. Racing dates are scheduled to be slashed in 2006, especially at Pimlico. There's no guarantee the Preakness will remain in Baltimore beyond next spring. Magna Entertainment Corp., the Canadian firm that owns Laurel and Pimlico, is scaling back its Maryland operation. It's official. While state politicians have fiddled on the issue in Annapolis, Rome has burned down. Oh, sure, there will still be thoroughbred racing here.