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
ROARING GRAND ROARS ON
It is 131 years old now, having aged with the turn
of the calendar, but harness racing’s Grand Circuit
roars on, with 17 tracks scheduling Grand Circuit
events in 2002. Freehold Raceway in New
Jersey kicks off the Circuit with races May 3 to
10, and the beat keeps up all spring, summer and
fall, with the last meeting at Dover Downs in Delaware
November 2-30. Between those season-spanning
dates there will be Grand Circuit racing at
Scioto Downs, the Meadowlands, Hoosier Park,
Goshen Historic, Northfield Park, Pocono Downs,
The Meadows, the Springfield, DuQuoin and Indianapolis
state fairs, Balmoral Park, Mohawk
Raceway, Delaware Ohio, The Red Mile and
Maywood Park.
Also returning in 2002 is the Classic Series for
older trotters and pacers, with $65,000 and $85,000
preliminaries at Dover Downs April 22 and at
Mohawk Raceway May 4, final preliminaries at
the Meadowlands June 1, and $250,000 finals at
both gaits at the Meadowlands June 8.
CHICAGO TALKS DRONE ON
No settlement yet, but negotiations continue in
Chicago today, where a boycott of the entry boxes
at Maywood and Balmoral in a dispute over guaranteed
purses has halted live racing for six nights.
Both tracks continue day and night simulcasting.
SANTA ANITA DROPS NY SIMO
Blaming the unpredictability of New York weather,
Santa Anita has dropped Aqueduct from its simulcasting
schedule and will rely on signals from its
sister track at Gulfstream Park and from the Fair
Grounds in New Orleans. It also will use Turf
Paradise in Phoenix. The track’s CEO, Jack
Libeau, told Daily Racing Form the Aqueduct
signal may be restored “later in the
year.”
January 3, 2002
WISCONSIN CRACKS DOWN
The state of Wisconsin, after a 20-month investigation,
has filed charges against a former greyhound
and kennel owner and his assistant that
could send the pair to jail for up to 85 years. The
charges involve transporting more than 1,000 retired
or unwanted racing greyhounds to their deaths
in medical experiments, for which the pair received
at least $374,000. Scott Scepaniak, the administrator
of the Wisconsin Division of Gaming, said
former kennel operator Daniel Shonka of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, and his assistant, Heidi Dierks, were
charged with four counts of felony theft, three
counts of felony theft by fraud and one count of
racketeering in a criminal complaint filed by the
Wisconsin Department of Justice. The pair allegedly
sold dogs that owners thought were still racing
or had been adopted to the Guidant Corporation
of St. Paul, Minnesota, a cardiac research facility,
where all died except some 100 that were
rescued during the state investigation in the spring
of 2000. Dierks, a former dog hauler for Shonka,
was called “as guilty as her boss” by Scepaniak,
because she knew what was going on and was a
willing participant. Scepaniak called their actions
“horrific” and said the pair received about $400 a
dog for those sold to the research facility.
TWO WEEKS FOR EFX SPECIAL
If you are headed for the Harness Racing Congress
and want to see the slambang EFX Alive!
show at the MGM Grand, you have two weeks to
get tickets from HTA. The deadline for our block
of tickets to the extravaganza expires then. Tickets
are $70 each for the highly rated show. There
is a later cutoff for Siegfried and Roy and Danny
Gans at the Mirage and Mystere at Treasure Island,
next door to the Mirage. For details, call
HTA. Room reservations also need to be made
soon for guaranteed confirmations.