State Racing

From the time he was 17, entrepreneur Ben Cohen had only himself as a boss -- becoming with his partner and brother Herman a liquidator and builder, and a pioneer in Baltimore television broadcasting.But most of all, he was a noted sportsman -- co-owner for 34 years of Pimlico Race Course, and owner with his wife, Zelda, of many thoroughbreds, including 1965 Belmont Stakes winner Hail All.On Monday at Sinai Hospital, less than a mile from the Pimlico backstretch, Mr. Cohen died of complications of old age. He was 94."

Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell often can be difficult to please, but even he wore a big smile after Wednesday night's game against UMBC. The Eagles quickly eliminated any suspense, scoring the game's first eight points and making their first eight shots from the field in an 80-61 victory at RAC Arena. Michael Murray had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead Coppin State (2-8), which snapped a four-game losing streak in the midst of a tough early-season schedule in which 12 of the team's first 15 games are on the road.

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.

When Sidney Hollander Sr., the legendary Baltimore civil rights and social activist, celebrated his 90th birthday in 1972, he reflected on his life's work seeking equality for those who had long been denied it. "I was always warned by my conservative friends that if you give Negroes one finger, they'll want the whole hand," he told a Sun reporter at the time. "That's what I'm for. If they get the whole hand, then they'll finally be equal. "We've broken down a lot of the taboos and restrictions, but we haven't broken down the emotions behind those taboos and restrictions," he said.

There are few sure things in horse racing, but bet on this: Come next year, one of the two biggest names in Maryland racing -- De Francis or Manfuso -- no longer will have a stake in the state's major thoroughbred tracks.Most likely, one of the co-owners of Laurel and Pimlico will buy out the other, removing from track management one of two family names that have dominated Maryland racing since the early 1980s.Breeders, fans and others are watching the looming battle closely, because whoever owns the tracks will determine, to a large degree, the future of the state's troubled racing industry during a time of great change.

Declan's Moon, the undefeated Maryland-bred seen as a potential boost to state racing if not racing nationwide, has suffered an injury that will sideline him until at least the fall. The leading contender for the Kentucky Derby, Declan's Moon injured his left front leg while winning the Santa Catalina Stakes last weekend at Santa Anita Park, said Ron Ellis, his trainer. The 3-year-old gelding suffered a small stress fracture of the radius bone just above the knee, the trainer said. Based at Hollywood Park in Southern California, Ellis said that three veterinarians had examined the horse and studied X-rays of the injury.

Accusations and insults were flying like clumps of muddy hay at the Maryland Racing Commission's four-hour meeting last week. At the center of the swirl stood Martin Jacobs, a 6-foot-tall, balding attorney with a conservative bearing. He was reading aloud a Maryland statute in his Brooklyn-tinged accent, enraging commissioners who were in no mood for a lecture on the law. A behind-the scenes force in the state's horse racing scene for more than two decades, Jacobs, 61, has advised several of the outsized personalities who have shaped the sport while drawing little attention to himself.

Services for Robert W. Furtick, retired president of a trucking company and a former member of the State Racing Commission, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Home, 6500 York Road.Mr. Furtick, who was 74, died Tuesday after a heart attack at his home on Chapelwood Lane in Lutherville.He retired 12 years ago as president of W. T. Cowan Inc., the trucking company with which he was associated for more than 30 years. He came to the Baltimore area during the early 1940s as plant manager of the Joseph E. Seagram & Sons distillery in Relay after working for the company in Louisville, Ky., and Lawrence, Ind. Mr. Furtick was a former president of the American Trucking Association and of the Maryland Motor Truck Association.

The last anti-Lasix bastion among major American racing jurisdictions is about to fall.Jerry Bilinski, newly confirmed chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, announced yesterday that the commission has agreed unanimously to publish a draft rule that could pave the way for Lasix usage at New York tracks by the beginning of the Belmont Park fall meet on Sept. 1.If during the 90-day publication period the rule is not altered or withdrawn, horses running in the Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park Oct. 28 will be able to run on Lasix.

WHEN LEADERS of the horse-racing industry patched together a temporary relief package at the recent General Assembly session, Gov. Parris N. Glendening was conspicuously silent. Lawmakers bought the industry's argument that state tracks need help to stay competitive with slots-rich tracks in Delaware. Now it is Mr. Glendening's turn to speak out.A four-bill package made it through the legislature, thanks in large part to Sens. Thomas Bromwell and Barbara Hoffman. The bills should ease financial pressure on Laurel and Pimlico and beef up purses that go directly to trainers, jockeys, owners and breeders.

The owners of Maryland's two major thoroughbred tracks proposed Friday to run 77 days of live racing next year at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course that would conclude after the Preakness Stakes in May. Meanwhile, the tracks' minority owner, Penn National Gaming, said it would pursue slots at Laurel Park, which means lobbying to change the state constitution to allow a second casino in Anne Arundel County when the General Assembly reconvenes...

LOUISVILLE, KY. — At a time when Maryland racing may have most needed a boost, one of its own, Kevin Plank of Sagamore Farms, gave it just that at the Breeders' Cup here Friday. Plank, the multi-millionaire founder and owner of Under Armour, also owned a long shot in the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf. That is the four-year-old filly, Shared Account, who did the near impossible before an opening day Breeders' Cup crowd of 41,614 at historic Churchill Downs. She won the race, at 46-1 odds, paying $94 to win, second-largest in the event's 27-year history, and stunning a field that had all but overlooked her. "I'm speechless," said trainer Graham Motion.

Incumbent Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee appears to have won a sixth term in a tight contest, after an absentee ballot count increased his lead Friday over his Republican opponent. "I think we won, yes," Weathersbee said Friday night. The additional ballots widened the Democrat's lead over attorney Eric Grannon, who practices mostly antitrust and business law, to 3 percent of the vote from 2 percent. Late-arriving absentee ballots as well as provisional ballots have yet to be counted.

Rebecca L. Nelson will be able to use the Weir family name again on the Nov. 2 general election ballot for the 7th District state Senate seat. After Nelson defeated James G. Stavropoulos Jr. in the September primary election, he questioned the legitimacy of the name she had used on the ballot, "Rebecca Weir Nelson. " Nelson is a cousin of Democratic Del. Michael H. Weir Jr. Stavropoulos accused her of using that name to hide criminal incidents that occurred after her failed 2006 run for the House of Delegates.

In the race for Baltimore County state's attorney, a rematch of the 2006 contest between Scott D. Shellenberger and Stephen Bailey, law-and-order issues have taken a back seat to accusations of wasteful spending. Shellenberger, a first-term Democrat, is promoting his accomplishments, which include carrying out a policy to record inmates' phone calls and prosecuting the state's first fetal homicide case. He is also playing up his role in the county's record-low crime statistics. Bailey, his Republican opponent, agrees that for the most part Shellenberger has done a good job as state's attorney, and he wants to expand some of his initiatives.

Patricia C. Jessamy, the longtime Baltimore prosecutor who has insisted that treatment and intervention programs were as important in fighting crime as courtroom trials, acknowledged Friday that she lost her re-election bid to a challenger who promised to get tougher on the city's most dangerous criminals. Jessamy's concession came a day after a set of absentee ballots were counted, widening slightly the lead held by attorney Gregg Bernstein to 1,363 votes out of 60,000 cast. Despite raising questions earlier in the week about the accuracy of the count, her legal team, which is reviewing the voting results, is not expected to fight the outcome.

Take racing in new directionI would like to address the issue of the racing industry in Maryland. As a fan of racing for more than 30 years, I have witnessed the past five years with mixed emotions. In 1988 we lost Freestate Raceway, and the harness industry is gone from central Maryland.The thoroughbreds were the only game in the Baltimore. They have a higher minimum bet, a concern for the $2 bettor. The De Francis family, for better or worse, was controlling the direction for the state's racing industry.

The search apparently has been narrowed to two candidates -- one with a background in racing and one with television expertise -- to be named the first so-called national "czar of racing."The board of directors of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, which represents the bulk of North American thoroughbred tracks, voted at its quarterly meeting in Toronto last week to hire a paid president to assume a commissioner-type role.The TRA's first commissioner of racing is expected be hired by the Nov. 6 Breeders' Cup.The idea is to reorganize the TRA, comprised of 42 tracks including all the major ones in the United States and Canada, and give it a more activist role "so that we'll have a league office staffed with full-time professionals instead of a lot of the work being done by volunteer track owners, who have their own businesses to run," said Pimlico/Laurel operator and TRA director Joe De Francis.

She may well go down as a footnote in Baltimore politics. But this week, the note that will include the name of Sheryl Lansey grew a lot longer. In the Democratic contest for Baltimore state's attorney, Patricia C. Jessamy, the 15-year incumbent, is hoping for a miracle or glitch that would uncover the roughly 1,400 votes she needs to surpass the apparent primary winner, challenger Gregg Bernstein. Far behind is Lansey, a little-known lawyer and former teacher who quietly entered the contest at the last minute and wound up with 2,361 votes.

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is concerned that thousands of votes may be missing from results that show her opponent with a slim lead, and she is not conceding the tight race before a more thorough review of voting procedures. Jessamy, who has been state's attorney for 15 years, wants to conduct an examination of the vote-reporting process beginning Thursday, a spokeswoman said. Lawyers said she could mount a legal challenge if she is not satisfied with the accuracy of the outcome.