Racing In Maryland

Learning to handle crises of mentally ill The fatal shooting of a suicidal young man suffering from a bipolar disorder is one example of the kind of tragedies that occur throughout the country when police officers are not given the tools to prepare them to deal with persons with serious mental illness who are in crisis ("Suicidal man fatally shot by police," Aug. 20). The National Alliance on Mental Illness has long advocated that more police officers be trained to be members of Crisis Intervention Teams who know how to respond properly to the mentally ill. CIT training gives police officers 40 hours of specialized instruction, including lessons about mental illnesses that teach officers to understand that mental illness is not a crime but a disease.

Some representatives of the horse racing industry have tossed out these figures when boasting of the industry's significance in Maryland: $1 billion economic impact and 20,000 jobs.Others have believed the figures were inflated.Now comes a new study by the University of Maryland that apparently verifies that belief. Released last week in Annapolis, the study estimates that the economic impact of horse racing and breeding in Maryland is $700 million. It estimates that the industry accounts for the equivalent of 10,000 full-time jobs, or about 15,000 actual jobs.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Sitting side by side in a rare display of unity, Joseph A. De Francis and Jeffrey P. Jacobs shoved aside past differences yesterday and delivered the forecast for horse racing in Virginia: bleak and cloudy this year, with sunshine and improving fortunes in the future.For 1999 at the beleaguered Colonial Downs racetrack, they proposed a 25-day thoroughbred meet Sept. 5 to Oct. 10 and no harness meet. Harness racing could return in 2000 after a year of cost cutting and improved management, they said.

The Maryland Jockey Club will take over day-to-day operation of the Colonial Downs horse track in southern Virginia under terms of an agreement to be revealed today at a meeting of the Virginia Racing Commission.If accepted by the commission at its meeting in Richmond, the deal would ensure the continuation of racing at Colonial Downs -- and a corresponding shutdown of thoroughbred racing in Maryland. Maryland Jockey Club officials would become even more immersed in Virginia, managing not only the Colonial Downs racetrack, which has struggled since opening in 1997, but also its off-track betting network.

The state study commission to aid the horse racing industry will meet today in Annapolis for the first time under its new chairman, Stuart S. Janney III.The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in room 406 of the Lowe House Office Building. It will be followed by meetings Dec. 18 and Jan. 8 at which the commission will make recommendations for how the legislature can help the industry keep pace with neighboring states that offer slot machines, telephone wagering and upscale off-track betting parlors.

The first finding of clenbuterol in thoroughbred racing in Maryland has resulted in a 15-day suspension for trainer John E. Salzman Sr.The drug was discovered in Dark Dilemma after his second-place finish Nov. 13 in the second race at Laurel Park. Salzman's temporary ban from the backstretch by the stewards began Friday.Based at Laurel Park, the veteran trainer said he administered the drug to Dark Dilemma according to the guidelines established by Maryland veterinarians -- seven days before race day. Still, clenbuterol turned up in the 5-year-old gelding's post-race drug test.

As thoroughbred racing enthusiasts turn their attention today to the sport's second-biggest day in Maryland, the commercials on television plead for slot machines at the racetracks. The commercials cry out: Preserve the state's horse racing industry.The presumption is that Delaware, which embraces slots at its three tracks, threatens horse racing in Maryland. A further presumption is that horse racing in Maryland is on its last leg.The state's Standardbred industry, which supports harness tracks in Prince George's County and on the Eastern Shore, has clearly suffered because of slots in Delaware.

Returning home after two weeks spent climbing mountains in Ecuador, Joe De Francis declined yesterday to shed light on the possible sale of a minority interest in Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park.De Francis, principal owner of the tracks, said the loan agreement between the Maryland Jockey Club, of which he is president and chief executive officer, and the estate of former Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke contains a confidentiality clause."I have to respect that," De Francis said.

HORSE RACING'S sad plight in Maryland gets sadder by the week. Indifference and politically motivated resistance from the Glendening administration; confusion and the lack of a consensus rescue plan on the part of legislators, and the loss of fans and top-flight local thoroughbred trainers to slots-rich Delaware Park combine to make a bleak situation downright ominous.Without some kind of government help this year, Maryland racing's free fall will surely accelerate. This places in grave jeopardy a $1 billion state industry that does far more to encourage and preserve grassy fields and farms than the governor's much-hyped ''smart growth'' land-use bill.

Isn't it funny that people with clean shoes are the ones determining the future of horse racing in Maryland, and yet people with dirty shoes are the ones who really care about it?Isn't it funny that politicians, lobbyists and lawyers are the ones with the power in the high-profile debate about slots that is all over the news these days, and yet grooms, railbirds and the other members of the racing nation are the people who feel the game stirring in their souls?Isn't that funny?OK, maybe not.Maybe it isn't so funny that the people on the inside of this critical debate about racing's future in Maryland seem to care about the sport mostly as it relates to their own self-interests, as another item on their political, moral and social agendas.

When New Mexico trainer Chip Woolley was driving across the continent with his painful broken leg in a splint to enter Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby, it probably never occurred to him that horse racing might no longer be worth the effort. The same goes for the thousands of horsemen and horsewomen who get up in the dark every morning at racing facilities big and small to muck their stalls and dream the Triple Crown dream Woolley is living right now. Maybe it was just an oversight, but nobody informed them that this is an X Games world now and that most people would rather watch some kid jump off a ramp on a little bicycle or skateboard.

Md. should take over I am a horseman who has been involved in the industry for over 35 years and have been in constant contact with most potential bidders, industry leaders and current track management. None of the bidders have the necessary experience or aptitude to improve the industry. The best solution is for the state to gain control of the tracks and contract the management to a party who has run a successful racetrack. Laurel needs to be scrapped, and continue live racing at Pimlico on a limited basis.

After working in the horse industry for nearly three decades, Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders' Association, is trying to navigate the 700-member organization through the most perilous of times for the state's thoroughbred interests. With Magna Entertainment - the Canadian-based owner of Maryland's two racetracks and the Preakness Stakes - filing for bankruptcy protection this month, the state's thoroughbred horse farms face an uncertain future. If there is no viable racing outlet in Maryland, that will accelerate the exodus of farms and horses to nearby states such as Pennsylvania, where racing industries are already bolstered by slot machine revenues.

Sure, we want slots. Why not? According to the poll this newspaper commissioned, nearly six out of 10 Marylanders who can vote in the fall say, sure, slot machines - let's get about 15,000 of them and set them up from the Allegheny Mountains to the Eastern Shore. What the hell? We've been talking about this since the last time the Orioles made the playoffs - yeah, that long - and the issue is not going away. The suits who shoot their cuffs when they walk into a room won't stop until they have what they want, and neither will their duly elected accomplices in Annapolis.

On a day when Maryland horsemen learned a minimum of 15 days will be cut from the 2008 racing schedule and heard of a possible shutdown of Pimlico Race Course for half the year, the chairman of the company that owns the state's thoroughbred tracks said he still wants to "revitalize" Maryland's racing industry. At yesterday's Maryland Racing Commission meeting, Lou Raffetto, Maryland Jockey Club president and chief operating officer, pointed to the lack of purse money and announced plans to cut one live racing day a week from the Laurel Park winter meet, which runs Jan. 1 through April 13. A year ago, the meet raced five-day weeks.

Learning to handle crises of mentally ill The fatal shooting of a suicidal young man suffering from a bipolar disorder is one example of the kind of tragedies that occur throughout the country when police officers are not given the tools to prepare them to deal with persons with serious mental illness who are in crisis ("Suicidal man fatally shot by police," Aug. 20). The National Alliance on Mental Illness has long advocated that more police officers be trained to be members of Crisis Intervention Teams who know how to respond properly to the mentally ill. CIT training gives police officers 40 hours of specialized instruction, including lessons about mental illnesses that teach officers to understand that mental illness is not a crime but a disease.

Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that "a limited number of slots at the tracks" could help save thoroughbred horse racing in Maryland, and that without passage of a modest gambling proposal, the Preakness will be lost. "I believe and have for many years that we will not have the 17,000 racing jobs in Maryland" without the addition of slots, O'Malley said during a news conference in Annapolis, days before the race. "We will no longer have the open space that is horse-related open space in Maryland.

Horsemen generally don't like change. But with racing returning to Maryland for the first time in nearly two months, they're taking the addition of twilight racing in stride. "I've been surprised by the response from fans and horsemen," said Lou Raffetto, the Maryland Jockey Club's president and chief operating officer. "Most of the horsemen are fine with it, and a lot of them are looking forward to it. "And I'm actually anxious to get live racing under way." The eight-day summer meet begins today at Laurel Park with a nine-race card, including three on the turf course.

HORSE RACING For the first time in the 20-year history of Maryland Million Day the event was postponed yesterday because of the threat of flooding. With parts of the parking lots at Laurel Park already flooded early yesterday morning, Maryland Jockey Club chief operating officer Lou Raffetto made the announcement after consulting with MJC racing secretary Georganne Hale, Maryland Million officials and Robby Minter, the Laurel turf superintendent....

Jamie V. Salazar heard the news on the radio yesterday morning: The Bowie Training Center where he lives and works could close its gates in May. "I don't know where we would go," Salazar said. "People are worried. We want to stay here. Where would we live?" Salazar has been a groom at Bowie for about eight years. But as he sat with his back against a stable wall alongside five other grooms, all he could do was shake his head. He doesn't have a plan; he doesn't know where he would go. And neither, he said, do the 200 or so workers who live at Bowie and care for the horses.