2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA
Executive Newsletter
A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond
Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor
CHICAGO MERGER ON TRACK
The proposed merger of Sportsman’s Park and
Hawthorne Race Course, the nation’s only backto-back
racetracks, is progressing, according to
Hawthorne’s director of operations, HTA director
Tom Carey III. Carey told Jim O’Donnell of the
Chicago Sun-Times that “everything is fluid, moving
forward, the exchanges are all positive, and I
am convinced we will move into the dates hearing
as a single racing entity.” There still are significant
hurdles to clear, however, including legislation
to allow Sportsman’s National Jockey Club to
retain certain tax entitlements, potential riverboat
royalties and rights to OTB licenses in the Chicago
area.
TAKEOUT HIKE ABANDONED
The idea of having California track patrons pay
part of the cost of increased workers’ compensation
premiums has been abandoned. Jack Liebau,
director of Magna Entertainment’s racing operations
at Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields and Bay
Meadows, said that strong negative reaction to
the idea of increasing takeout has led to an alternative
plan, diverting monies from funds already
in existence for vanning and stabling and marketing.
That idea requires legislative approval, however,
and Blood-Horse reports Liebau as saying
“It’s hard to get the legislature to hear us right
now. They’ve got their attention on their own budget.”
THE CATS MEOW AT POMPANO
There will be a new type of fund raiser at Pompano
Park tomorrow night, when vets, horse owners
and track personnel compete in a 9 Lives miniature
horse race to raise money for -- we’re serious
-- cats on the backstretch. More than
$1,000 has already been raised to pay vets
to test, immunize, spay and neuter the cats.
Kids will benefit, too, with free rides behind
Pompano’s miniature horses.
May 28, 2002
BIG MAC ATTACK IN ONTARIO
The McIntosh brothers -- Bob and Doug -- are
raising havoc in Ontario stakes competition. Sunday
at Windsor Raceway, Lady Graceful and Miss
Frizzle, both trained by Bob McIntosh, finished 1-
2 in the $130,000 Gold Series final for 3-year-old
pacing fillies. Saturday, at Western Fair Raceway
in London, Ryan Hall and Semper Fi Hall, both
trained by Bob’s older brother Doug, finished 1-2
in the $130,000 final for 3-year-old trotting colts.
It’s a Cam Lie, trained by Bob, won a division of
the Ontario Grassroots Series for 3-year-old pacers
yesterday at Dresden Raceway, and last Friday
I’m a Camedian and Watering Hole, two more
Bob McIntosh trainees, won Grassroots divisions
at Elmira Raceway. While all of this was going on,
Trainforthefuture, also trained by Bob McIntosh,
won the $170,513 Dexter Cup at Freehold Raceway
in New Jersey.
SWIATEK GETTING MAJOR INK
If pre-event publicity means anything, HTA’s
former president John Swiatek has a winner with
his Washington Wild Things, a class A Frontier
League newcomer that plays its first regular season
game tomorrow in a new 3,200-seat field in
North Franklin, near Pittsburgh. The game,
against the Canton, Ohio, Coyotes sold out 47 minutes
after ticket sales began. Swiatek, former vice
president of Ladbroke Racing Pennsylvania, which
owned The Meadows before Magna Entertainment
bought the track, is managing partner of the
Wild Things. He and other investors from Washington,
PA, bought and relocated the team, formerly
known as the Canton Crocodiles. Another
group of Ohio investors then bought the London,
Ontario, Werewolves and relocated them to Canton
as the Coyotes. Swiatek says his team has
sold the equivalent of 1,300 to 1,400 season
ticket plans which range from $210 to $420
each, and he hopes to draw 2,200 to 2,400
for each home game.