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
Paul Joseph Estok, Editor October 8, 2002
MICHIGAN TRACK REJECTED administrative judge. Indianapolis Downs is scheduled
to open for business in December.
Ingham County, Michigan, rejected the plans of
EQTAH, the company controlled by Andy Stronach
In other business, the commission approved a general
plan for dividing live harness dates next year
(son of Magna Entertainment Chairman Frank
Stronach), for a racetrack and entertainment center
at the county fairgrounds in the city of Mason.
between Indianapolis Downs and Hoosier Park.
The plan calls for 150 days of harness racing, to
The Lansing State Journal reports that officials
be offered in the late winter and early spring at
from Ingham County, the fairgrounds and city met
Hoosier and during the summer and fall at Indianapolis
Downs. There also will be 100 days of thor-
with EQTAH, which had proposed building a racetrack,
simulcast facility, sports bar, theme restaurants
and arcade. “We’re not interested,” county
oughbred and quarter horse racing, with a spring
meet at Indianapolis Downs and fall meet at Hoosier
Park.
commissioner Mary Stid said after the meeting.
“We don’t have the space for something like this,
and then there’s the moral issue.” EQTAH proposed
the Mason site as an alternative to its original
plan for a track in Wheatfield Township. While
the Wheatfield proposal is still pending, a citizen’s
group has already opposed the plan with a campaign
that includes yard signs, t-shirts, letters and
e-mails.
INDIANA DISPUTE CONTINUES
The Indiana Racing Commission on Monday voted
4-1 to expand its investigation into Indianapolis
Downs and its contacts with consultants and commission
members. “If there are things that need
investigating further, we should investigate it,” said
Commissioner Pete Beck. Joe Gorajec, the
commission’s executive director, already has recommended
that the track be fined $1.2 million for
failure to disclose its relations with Larry Mohr, a
paid consultant and lobbyist. The track has said it
met all reporting requirements, and has filed affidavits
from two former commissioners accusing
Gorajec of being biased against the track, according
to the Associated Press. The dispute between
the track and commission was pending be-fore
Administrative Law Judge Bernard Pylitt,
but the commission voted Monday to remove
him from the case and appoint a new
CORRUPTION DISPUTED IN G.B.
Great Britain’s thoroughbred horse racing industry
defended itself Monday against allegations of
widespread corruption detailed in a BBC television
documentary. The British sports minister, Richard
Caborn, also gave his “full support.” In the
“Panorama” program aired in England Sunday
night, the former head of security for the Jockey
Club, Roger Buffham, said “a whole generation of
National Hunt (steeplechase) jockeys had close
links to organized crime.” Buffham, who worked
with the Jockey Club for nine years before being
fired last year for misconduct, was the key witness
interviewed in the “The Corruption of Racing”
documentary. Jockey Club spokesman Jahn
Maxse said Monday that Buffham has an “ax to
grind.... We are a very active regulator and when
there is evidence we will bring charges against
those who have corrupted the sport. While there
is betting there will be those seeking unfair
advantage and I wouldn’t want to claim racing is
crime-free. Racing on the whole is a clean sport.”
Caborn said he would meet with the Jockey Club
to see if any further anti-corruption safeguards
were needed. The program detailed alleged links
between organized crime and top jockeys,
as well as other allegedly corrupt practices.