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
FROM JOY TO GLOOM, IN 24 HRS
When the New Jersey state Assembly voted 48-
21 to approve the $18 million purse subsidy bill on
Monday, after the Senate had approved it 27-5
last month, there was joy among horsemen and
management throughout the Garden State. It was
short lived. Yesterday morning, just before leaving
office at noon, acting governor Don
DiFrancesco exercised a line item veto of the purse
subsidy portion of the legislation and cut the appropriation
to $6 million. With the total divided
35% to harness purses and 65% to thoroughbreds,
the cut means that harness racing will receive $2.1
million instead of $6.3 million, and thoroughbred
racing $3.9 million instead of $11.7, and not all of
that money goes to purses. Some goes directly to
horsemen’s associations, so the net purse boost is
diminished even further. Those cuts underscored
the reticence of Bruce Garland, senior executive
vice president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition
Authority, to accept proposed date allocations
at the recent New Jersey Racing Commission
meeting.
GOD ENTERS KY VLT ISSUE
Legislators and the governor will make the final
decision on VLTs at Kentucky racetracks, but representatives
of the Lord plan to intervene before
the issue is decided. The Associated Press reports
that church leaders plan to “take to the pulpits” to
stop any attempts to allow tracks in the commonwealth
to have VLTs. The executive director of
the Council of Churches used strong language in
attacking the idea, saying it was “a potential billion
dollar rape of Kentucky’s economy” and was
being driven by “pure greed.” She was backed by
the president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention,
who promised that Kentucky’s largest Protestant
denomination would protest. He
brought race into the issue, calling the idea
“a redistribution of money from nonwhite,
January 9, 2002
noneducated, lower-income people to white, educated,
higher-income people.” Polls show varying
sentiment, depending on whose you consider. One
commissioned by conservative and religious coalition
opponents of the idea claims that 64% of
registered voters oppose allowing VLTs at tracks.
A racing industry poll shows that 60% of Kentuckians
support VLTs at tracks if part of the money
goes toward social causes. The church groups invited
all 138 Kentucky legislators to a press conference
on the issue yesterday, but according to
the Lexington Herald-Leader “only a handful”
showed up.
TWO GREAT PACERS IN HALL
The outstanding pacing mare Handle With Care
and the brilliant racehorse and sire Western
Hanover have been elected to the Living Horse
Hall of Fame. Members of the Hall voted the two
into the shrine in annual balloting. Handle With
Care retired in 1975 as the richest and fastest pacing
mare in the sport, having won some of the
sport’s major stakes, including the mile and a quarter
International Pace and one mile U.S. Pacing
Championship, against males. Western Hanover,
the 2-year-old pacing colt of 1991 and 3-year-old
champion of 1992, was retired to Hanover Shoe
Farms in Pennsylvania and last year ranked first
in the sport in money-earnings of his 2-year-olds.
Previous great horses voted into the Hall of Fame
by its members are the pacers Abercrombie, Albatross,
Artsplace, Cam Fella, Fan Hanover,
Niatross, and On the Road Again, and trotters
Mack Lobell, Peace Corps, Speedy Crown, Super
Bowl and Valley Victory.
JIM MANGO ON VERNON BOARD
Jim Mango, most recently executive vice president
and COO at Pimlico and Laurel, and before
that executive assistant at HTA, has been
named to the board of directors of Mid-State
Raceway, parent of Vernon Downs.