Racing Industry

The Keep It In Maryland task force yesterday called on the state to assist in providing new facilities for the horse racing industry to help "level the playing field" between the lottery and racing and to help find a way to increase purses. Representatives of the KIM task force, the Maryland Racing Commission and various segments of Maryland's horse industry will present their case to the Maryland Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 25. Some of what state legislators will hear was voiced at yesterday's racing commission meeting.

Finally, some good news for Maryland horse racing. A trifecta of sorts. On the sentimental front, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who shattered a hind leg in full view of a horrified Preakness crowd in May, is once again grazing on his own four feet. Earlier this summer, the smart money was on a speedy dispatch for the thoroughbred after he developed a severe case of laminitis in his good hind leg and most of the hoof was removed. But excellent care, deep-pocketed owners and a horse with amazing heart and grit have so far worked a miracle.

On a warm summer's evening at Laurel Park, the Baker family - mother, father, 3-year-old and baby - sat on the benches by the horse track, watching the ninth race and cheering for their favorite (which came in dead last). They were among the 4,400 who turned out yesterday for the first twilight racing meet in several years to be offered at a major Maryland thoroughbred track. "If they do this again, we'll probably come out," Jon Baker, a third-year law student at the University of Maryland said of the experiment by the horse industry, aimed at drawing new fans.

It has been four days since Barbaro broke down in the first furlong of the Preakness, and the conspiracy theorists are still coming out of the woodwork. The horse wasn't sound to begin with. The horse hurt himself breaking through the gate before the race. Someone was seen behind a grassy knoll at Old Hilltop. If you don't like conspiracy theories, how about a doomsday scenario? Barbaro's injury might be the end of horse racing as we know it. The sport is in such staggering decline that this horrible moment in thoroughbred racing history just might push the industry over the precipice ... perhaps even onto the Outdoor Life Network.

When NBC sportscaster Bob Costas stood next to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. at last year's Preakness Stakes trophy presentation, he asked the question that was echoing from the infield to the grandstand: Would that Preakness be Maryland's last? Slot machine gambling - long pitched as the savior of the state's beleaguered horse racing industry - had failed in the legislature for the third year in a row, and Pimlico's majority owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., was sounding ominous notes about the future.

Horse racing's problem is obvious: a decades-long slump in attendance and wagering at the track. Horse racing's solution might be less obvious: Get people to stay home -- and bet. In a seemingly paradoxical and counterintuitive turn, online technology, which would appear to discourage going to the races, is being viewed as a potential life-saver for a sport on life support. "Over the 25 years I've been in this industry, not one day has gone by when I haven't heard people complaining that our customer base is getting older and we can't attract young people," said Joseph A. De Francis, chief executive officer of the Maryland Jockey Club and executive vice president for operations of interactive betting channels for parent Magna Entertainment Corp.

The many groups that make up Maryland's horse racing industry fought among themselves for so long that at times it seemed they would never be able to coexist. A sense of hopelessness about their infighting eventually set in, bearing a striking resemblance to the continuing political standoff that prevents the approval of slots gambling, which the industry says it needs to compete with racetracks in surrounding states that have slots. The fact that the many Maryland industry groups, which include thoroughbred and standardbred horsemen and track owners, could sit down for three months and hammer out a landmark compromise, announced Tuesday, demonstrates that sometimes even seemingly impossible stalemates can be overcome.

With apologies to the poet T. S. Eliot, this is the way the push for slots ends: not with a bang but a whimper. The absence of any hue and cry was notably striking last week when Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller quietly pulled the plug on a slots bill - ending any drive to legalize the devices this legislative session before it even got off the ground. This dead-on-arrival scenario was markedly different from the last three years when Mr. Miller and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. would have had us believe that Maryland could simply not survive another year without a big expansion of legalized gambling.

When Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. took office four years ago, horse trainers like Eddie Gaudet hoped the Republican would quickly deliver on his campaign pledge to bring slot machines to Maryland's tracks and - in their opinion - keep the state's racing industry competitive with those in other states. But with this week's failure of gambling legislation in the Maryland General Assembly, Gaudet is considering leaving the state altogether. He recently rented 20 stalls and an apartment in Delaware.

Puncturing the myths about racing industry The article "Racing Toward Oblivion?" (Sept. 25) mentions several myths that are endemic to the horse racing industry but that have little basis in fact. A report released by the Maryland Tax Education Foundation investigated the myths and determined the following: Myth 1: Horse racing cannot compete with casino gambling. In the 1990s, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan legalized many casinos. Not one racetrack went bankrupt. Pari-mutuel betting stayed constant in Indiana and Illinois, and declined 13 percent in Michigan.