Racing Industry

The Maryland Racing Commission learned yesterday that the Maryland Jockey Club is working on a proposal for a new simulcast betting facility at a restaurant in Solomons in Calvert County. It would be the fifth off-track betting (OTB) facility regulated by the commission, joining The Cracked Claw near Frederick, North East Racing & Sports Club in North East, the Cambridge Turf Club in Cambridge and the Riverboat Restaurant in Colonial Beach, Va., which straddles the Maryland/Virginia state line.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening made clear yesterday he is in no hurry to help the racetrack owners who spent more than a million dollars last year in what many saw as an attempt to unseat him.In a wide-ranging talk with Sun editorial writers -- touching on sprawl, taxes, education and civil rights -- Glendening reserved his most pointed remarks for his political enemies in the racing industry.The governor did not hide his irritation at their quest to legalize slot machines at tracks and their support of Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey in the gubernatorial race.

NO SOLUTION for Maryland's troubled racing industry emerged from this year's General Assembly. The $10 million grant to state tracks will keep purses stable, but won't come near matching the money paid to owners of winning horses at slots-rich Delaware racetracks. More promising is the commitment from Maryland track owners to present substantial improvement plans to the governor and legislature by late spring.Of particular concern is the future of historic Pimlico Race Course, home of the second leg in racing's Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.

After working aggressively to unseat her last year, Maryland racetrack owner Joseph A. De Francis is raising money for Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a likely candidate in the 2002 governor's race.In 1998, De Francis backed Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey over the Democratic team of Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Townsend largely because of the governor's staunch opposition to the legalization of slot machines at Maryland racetracks.De Francis is listed as one of 11 co-chairmen of a $1,000-a-head fund-raiser for Townsend in downtown Baltimore on Nov. 17. Glendening is honorary chairman of the event.

Nearing the end of its annual 90-day session, the General Assembly gave final approval last night to $10 million in subsidies for the racing industry and a plan to allow a third thoroughbred racing track in Maryland.The House of Delegates also signed off on a 30 cents-a-pack cigarette tax increase, which will generate about $77 million a year in state revenue. It is the first major tax boost since the recession year of 1992, when the state increased taxes on tobacco, gasoline and income.Both measures go to Gov. Parris N. Glendening for his promised signature.

In the wake of last week's Joe De Francis-Parris Glendening peace initiative, prominent members of Maryland's racing community expressed guarded optimism."

Looking to run for governor in three years, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has received early financial support from Maryland's racing industry -- a group that worked hard to unseat her and Gov. Parris N. Glendening in last year's election.At least nine people, companies or political groups affiliated with the racing industry have given Townsend a total of at least $13,000, according to her campaign finance report released yesterday.Upset with Glendening's stand against the legalization of slot machines in Maryland, the racing industry raised significant money for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey last year.

A state study commission agreed yesterday to recommend that legislators continue helping the Maryland horse racing industry through trying, competitive times. But the commission did not reveal how much assistance it would recommend.That will be decided during private deliberations among commissioners in the next two or three weeks, said Stuart S. Janney III, who heads the commission on the horse racing industry.Based on recommendations of the commission last year, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Parris N. Glendening signed a subsidy package that included $8 million for thoroughbred and standardbred purses and $1.5 million for marketing.

The end seemed near when the power failed at Pimlico last year on Preakness Day.The atmosphere was surreal, ghostlike, as patrons wandered in the dark, sweltered in the heat and cursed the ancient, deteriorating home of the state's great sporting event.It wasn't hard to imagine that this was Pimlico's last gasp, that the historic palace of racing had become little more than a tomb for the memory of Secretariat, Citation and Man o' War.But one year later, it's clear that the degradation of that Preakness fiasco has given rise to cautious new hope not only for the survival of Pimlico, but also its resurgence as a respected, if not revered, setting for the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

In a move that could bring peace to the politically fractious horse racing industry, Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced yesterday he will commit $10 million in state funds to increase racing purses in exchange for new promises of improved track facilities."

Raising alcohol tax would destroy jobs An essential fact missing from the editorial supporting higher alcohol taxes was the destructive domino effect it would have on the state's hospitality industry, destroying jobs among those who can least afford it - waiters, waitresses, busboys and bartenders ("The enablers in Annapolis," March 19). Simply put, alcohol taxes are hospitality taxes that negatively impact restaurants, hotels, bars, liquor stores and the thousands of women and men they employ.

Nobody asked me, but I think it's pathetic that Bobby Prigel's well-to-do neighbors and their lawyer in the Long Green Valley persist in trying to keep him from opening an organic creamery on his farm because they think the barn-like building will spoil their view. What a waste of time and money - and bad feelings for no good reason. Prigel has a great idea - a local, fourth-generation family farmer doing local farming, and in an organic, earth-friendly way - and he ought to be supported.

It's always difficult to separate the issues of whether we need slots in Maryland and whether those slots might save the horse racing industry. But it's an important distinction. After years of mulling it over, I've come to the conclusion that we do need slots, especially now that we're facing such an enormous budget crisis in Maryland. But if we get them, we can't pretend slots are going to save the Sport of Kings. Because they won't. They might keep the industry from circling the drain and might give pause to some of the top jockeys, owners and trainers who are migrating to Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but without some major changes, it isn't going to be the long-term savior it's made out to be. The small-time operations and horse farms are still going to be holding on by hooves and teeth.

In horse racing, the term "abandoned" refers to a race that's canceled and all bets returned. Many in Maryland's horse racing industry will be disappointed to find out their abandonment by Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. involves no return on investment. The former governor's recent decision to oppose his successor's plan for legalized slots hit his former allies at the tracks like a thoroughbred owner whose jockey just got called for interference of his own horse. One local racing lobbyist, a man who served time in prison for fraud, told a Washington Post reporter that Mr. Ehrlich's performance marked "a new low in Maryland politics."

A November slots referendum designed to keep millions in gambling dollars from going to nearby states would, if approved, likely end up sending millions in tax revenue to out-of-state racehorse owners, according to a new analysis by a taxpayer advocacy group. In 2007, 58 percent of Maryland thoroughbred race winnings went to out-of-state owners, according to the report to be released today by the Maryland Tax Education Foundation. If that trend continues, much of the $80 million in annual thoroughbred purse subsidies under the proposed legislation will continue to flow to non-Maryland horse owners and a small number of in-state breeders, said Jeffrey C. Hooke, a gambling analyst and president of the Bethesda-based nonprofit.

Halsey Minor, a technology entrepreneur who grew up in Virginia horse country near Charlottesville, said he believes the horse racing industry has been its own worst enemy and he has an idea about how to fix it. Minor wants nothing to do with slot machines, shopping malls, movie theaters or anything else that doesn't relate directly to the horse and its entourage - trainer, owner and jockey. And Minor thinks horse racing should feel the same way. "I have been appalled at the lack of fan support and the industry's failure to bring fans back into live racing," he said.

Kent Desormeaux had his own Howard Dean moment after Big Brown's dominating Preakness victory yesterday. Voicing over a replay of the race while being interviewed by NBC, Desormeaux described the moment when he eased off the brakes so Big Brown could pull away: "I just let him go. Bye-bye! Woooooo!" The jockey's high spirits permeated NBC's telecast, even before the race. Interviewed back in the jockeys' room by Bob Costas, Desormeaux was articulate, good-humored and obviously excited.

Big Brown's come-from-behind victory in yesterday's Preakness Stakes, setting up a potential Triple Crown for the first time in three decades, sent fans at Pimlico Race Course into fits of joy - and pushed aside, if only for the moment, unease over the safety of horse racing. "There's your Triple Crown! There's your Triple Crown!" screamed Suzanne DePaula of Baltimore as Big Brown pulled ahead down the stretch. In the grandstand, ecstatic fans who had made Big Brown the far-and-away favorite stood on their seats and cheered the horse toward home.

At yesterday's Alibi Breakfast, there was much of the latter but remarkably little of the former. Usually, this pre-Preakness event is an opportunity for big talk. Owners and trainers would make boastful predictions about how their horses would do in the race - or perhaps start dropping excuses should they perform badly - and politicians would use the event to promote the need to support the grand tradition of thoroughbred racing. Translation: Slots. Slots! SLOTS. But this year, with Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown far and away the favorite in Saturday's Preakness, most of the breakfast-goers speaking on behalf of the other horses in the race were not so much bragging as nearly conceding.

Laurel Park continued to lose money last year, according to financial documents filed with the state racing commission, as questions linger about the racetrack's viability as a potential spot for slots. The track's financial struggles underscore the intensifying battle over a November referendum to legalize slot-machine gambling in the state. The Laurel track could be granted slots under the measure, although its corporate parent has not committed to supporting a pro-slots campaign. A portion of the slot revenue is slated to provide a boost to the state's flagging racing industry, which in recent years has struggled amid increasing competition from tracks in Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that permit slot-machine gambling.