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
STRIKE AT HAWTHORNE?
Larry Hamel, writing in today’s Chicago Sun-
Times, reports that the Illinois Harness
Horsemen’s Association is threatening a strike of
the revived harness meeting at Hawthorne Race
Course, due to open a 37-night meeting on June 7.
Quoting the IHHA’s lead negotiator, driver Tony
Morgan, Hamel says the issue is over Hawthorne’s
earlier guarantee of $116,000 a night in purses.
Illinois’purse recapture law, which rebates money
to tracks, could be in danger because of a state
budget crisis, and Hamel speculates that if that
happened, Hawthorne might lose more than
$200,000 in the last 13 nights of its meeting. Morgan
contends that Hawthorne and the IHHA had
agreed on $116,000 a night regardless of recapture
or any other developments.
THE EMERALD CASINO, AGAIN
Like a long-running soap opera, only with hundreds
of millions at stake, the Emerald Casino fiasco in
Chicago took another turn yesterday, with the lawyer
for Emerald’s investors saying they have
agreed to sell out for no profit, which would mean
the state could reap up to $500 million if it allowed
the sale. Under the proposed deal, according to
the Chicago Tribune, shareholders in the venture
not accused of any wrongdoing would divide $13
million in profits in addition to getting back their
original investment of roughly $52 million. Illinois’
attorney general, Jim Ryan, reacted to the effort,
which still would locate the casino in suburban
Rosemont, by calling the Rosemont effort “a
tainted deal” and promising to take legal action to
block any settlement that might be negotiated before
the start of a long-delayed hearing, now scheduled
to start next Wednesday. Ryan reportedly
wants to examine allegations of wrongdoing against
top Emerald officials, notably former
Waste Management executive Donald
Flynn and his son Kevin.
May 24, 2002
ON THE BUSY TRACK BEAT
TOM CHOLAKIS, president and CEO of HTA’s
associate member Capital District Regional OTB,
based in Schenectady, NY, has announced he plans
to retire at the end of the year after five profitable
years of running the OTB operation. Cholakis said,
“I’m sailing off into the sunset,” to spend more
time with his wife Kathy, who has been wintering
in Florida for three years. A search committee
has been named, according to OTB chairman
James Accattato, with a salary in the $115,000 to
$125,000 range. Accattato said that under
Cholakis’ regime Capital handle rose from $216
million to $229.4 million, and the share to the 17
communities served by the OTB rose from $5 million
to $9.2 million.......Good news for
ROSECROFT RACEWAY and OCEAN DOWNS
and their horsemen. They will share in a $4.5 million
windfall, instead of a lowered $3 million fund,
as a result of a Wednesday meeting in which it
was agreed that the full amount originally earmarked
for purses by the Maryland legislature
would be made available to Maryland’s tracks July
1........Under the revised eight-year lease negotiated
by and for PRAIRIE MEADOWS RACE-
TRACK AND CASINO, Polk county, which owns
the track property, will receive $147 million during
the next eight years. It is the third version of
the lease, which has been adjusted and revised for
the last two months......MAGNA ENTERTAIN-
MENT and POMONA FAIRPLEX have agreed
to move the 17-day Los Angeles County Fair thoroughbred
meeting to Santa Anita, subject to California
Horse Racing Board approval. If approved
at the board’s June 6 meeting, it will mark the end
of 63 seasons of racing at Pomona. Hollywood
Park, which failed to reach agreement earlier with
Pomona, says it will oppose the
transfer......Business Week reports rumors that
DOVER DOWNS may be the target of a
buyout bid by MAGNA or PARK PLACE.