Racing In Maryland

The horse industry is the fastest-growing agricultural sector in Harford County, local officials say, but stagnant racing purses threaten its continued viability in the state, some area farmers contend. Billy Boniface, co-owner of Bonita Farms in Darlington, said business has dropped because of problems with breeders' incentives, the percentage of money in a racing purse that goes back to the farm that bred the racehorse. Those incentives and the purses that owners receive if their horses win are larger in nearby states.

Include, whose reign as latest winner of the Pimlico Special will last at least two years, has been named Maryland-bred Horse of the Year in the annual poll conducted by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. Bred and owned by Robert E. Meyerhoff, Include, as a 4-year-old, won his first five starts of 2001 on his way to earning $1.4 million. His crowning achievement came in the Grade I Pimlico Special. Include outfought Albert the Great in a thrilling stretch duel for the neck victory.

Denouncing the manner in which the Maryland Jockey Club has reassigned stalls, H. Graham Motion, one of the most respected trainers in Maryland, said yesterday that he will remove his horses from Laurel Park. Motion, 37, said he received notice two days ago that he would have to reduce his stable from 36 to 24 horses for the coming Laurel meet, which begins Wednesday. The cutback is part of MJC's plan to consolidate horses at Laurel and Bowie after its announced closure of the Pimlico stables for the winter.

Send the children to stock market camp. They can put themselves through college. Rumsfeld will strengthen defense by getting rid of bases, ships, bombers, missiles, personnel and treaties. OK? The best players skip it; reformers attack its priorities; betting on it may be outlawed: College basketball is in grave danger of going amateur. Don't worry about the decline of racing in Maryland. There's always tip jars.

On the record, they say the fight over Maryland racing dates will be "contentious." Off the record, they say it may be a "bloodbath." On Wednesday, representatives of the Maryland Jockey Club will ask the state's racing commission for permission to cease racing at Pimlico and Laurel Park for parts of June and July so that thoroughbreds can race at Colonial Downs. Situated between Richmond and Williamsburg, Va., Colonial Downs has set its meet from June 9 to July 14. Because the Maryland Jockey Club manages racing at Colonial Downs, the MJC wants to shut down racing here for those five weeks.

Joe De Francis, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club, said yesterday that he plans to meet with representatives of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association to try to resolve the dispute over when to shut down for Colonial Downs. The MTHA, an organization of trainers and owners, issued a news release Tuesday reiterating its opposition to ceasing racing in Maryland so that thoroughbreds can race June 9-July 14 at Colonial Downs in Virginia. The MTHA prefers to send its horses there in September, as in the past.

The Maryland Racing Commission deferred action yesterday on next year's schedule at Pimlico and Laurel Park while the state's thoroughbred horsemen consider the schedule at Colonial Downs, the Maryland Jockey Club-managed track in Virginia. The board of directors of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, an organization of trainers and owners, will meet Jan. 3 to decide when it would prefer to cease live racing in Maryland so thoroughbreds can run at Colonial Downs. Racing dates at Colonial Downs are the province of the Virginia Racing Commission, not the Maryland horsemen.

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.

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.