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
PRAIRIE MAY DITCH HARNESS
Harness racing at Prairie Meadows in Iowa may
soon be a thing of the past. Jim Rasmussen, chairman
of the Racing Association of Central Iowa
which operates the racetrack, has told Royal
Roland, the president of the Iowa Harness
Horsemen’s Association, that the sport’s days are
numbered, and that this year’s fall meeting may
be the last. Although harness racing has a rich
history dating back well over a century in Iowa,
and the Des Moines Register says harness interests
were instrumental in lobbying for the parimutuel
bill that brought racing to Prairie Meadows,
Rasmussen now says there is little support
for it at the Des Moines-area track, and that the
racing association may instead support increased
funding for harness races at Iowa’s summer county
fairs. Prairie Meadows currently pays $750,000
for harness purses at the fairs, has $600,000 slated
for this year’s 20-day fall harness meeting, and
says it costs an additional $175,000 to $200,000 to
convert its track from the runners to harness racing.
If the sport is abandoned, it would mark its
third setback at Prairie Meadows. The harness
meet was halted after 34 days of a scheduled 53-
day meeting during Prairie Meadows inaugural
season of 1989 when the track ran out of money,
and was dropped after the 1990 meeting. It returned
to the track’s racing schedule in 1999, but
total daily handle last year was down to $36,221.
Thoroughbred and quarter horse dates will drop
from 98 to around 75 days in 2003, and purses for
those meetings will drop from $20 million to $15
million.
WAPLES SUES WEG
Randy Waples, Canada’s leading harness race
driver who was banned for a month and put on probation
for six last December after a paddock
incident with another driver, is suing
Woodbine Entertainment Group for $11
million.
March 29, 2002
Waples claims he is being denied the opportunity
to make a living, despite the fact that he was eligible
to drive again at WEG tracks on February 1
but chose not to accept conditions for a code of
conduct following his earlier paddock outbursts.
STRONG WORDS IN MARYLAND
A member of the Maryland Racing Commission
has told the Washington Post that he and at least
three other commissioners would oppose a sale of
the Maryland Jockey Club’s Pimlico and Laurel
racetracks to Magna Entertainment, based on their
operation of Gulfstream Park. Commissioner
Terry Saxon said, “We would never approve it, I
can tell you that. I personally would look long and
hard after the experience at Gulfstream.” Another
commissioner, Lou Ulman, had a more balanced
view. He said he “would need to know what their
objectives are, and I think Maryland should have
year-round racing. I think some of the companies
might have other objectives.” Magna president
Jim McAlpine had no comment on the commissioners’
statements.
MAGNA SETTLES ON RUNOFF
Magna Entertainment’s Portland Meadows, which
lost half of its winter meeting because of disagreements
with the Environmental Protection Agency,
has settled its wastewater runoff problems, at least
temporarily. In a consent agreement in a suit filed
by the Northwest Environmental Defense Center
and the Columbia Riverkeeper, the track has
agreed to divert its storm drains from the Columbia
Slough to the city of Portland’s sewage system
-- at a cost of $750,000 -- and pay a $100,000 fine
to the U.S. Treasury in a civil penalty. The track
now can race until 2005, when it will have to relocate
or close, according to the Portland Oregonian.
Magna already holds options on land in the area,
but will need rezoning.