2005 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, Editor May 5, 2005NO DOUBT AT THE ISLENEW MAINE TRACK ON COURSEThere may still be doubt in the Florida legislature A legislative committee in Maine yesterday overwhelminglybacked a plan for a new harness trackas to the form slots in Broward county will takewhen the session closes tomorrow night, but there and racino “Down East” in the state’s Washingtoncounty. The Legal and Veterans Affairs com-is no uncertainty at HTA member Pompano Park.The track announced today that it will start constructionwithin two weeks on a 157,000 square-Indians’ plan. The bill still faces votes in the Housemittee voted 9-1 to support the Passamaquoddyfoot building that will hold as many as 2,000 slots, and Senate, and strong opposition from Maine’sand a Pompano Beach city building official confirmedthat approval of the permit to build it is Baldacci, who opposes an expansion of gambling,Casino No! anti-gambling group. Gov. Johnnear. Approval for the site plan of the $1.6 millionPhase I of the project was approved by the were to pass. As approved, the Passamaquoddieswould not say whether he would veto the bill if itPompano Beach Planning and Zoning Board last would operate the track and share their slot revenueswith Maine’s three other tribes.week. Pompano general manager Dick Feinbergsaid the new racino “is going to be gorgeous.”CAL BOARD BILL APPROVEDOn the opposite coast, the CaliforniaAssembly’s Committee on Governmental Organizationapproved, after what the San DiegoUnion-Tribune called “heated debate and noisyopposition,” a bill that would restrict horseownership by members of the California HorseRacing Board. The committee approved, onan 8-5 vote on strict party lines -- Democratsfor and Republicans against -- a bill that wouldprovide that no more than four of the board’sseven members could have any financial stakein horse racing. There is no current limit, andfive members of the board presently own horses.Neither side was happy with the result of thevote, and both agreed to continue negotiatingthe content of the bill before it is sent to theAssembly floor for an up or down vote. Thecommittee’s chairman, Jerome Horton ofInglewood, said after the vote, “What a monster.”Speaking of monsters, no word from TheTerminator yet on where he might stand on theproposal, which might have been inspired as apayback for remarks by commissionerand horse owner Richard Shapiro aboutthe Jockeys’ Guild.THE SLOW WHEELS OF JUSTICETrainer Noel Daley got another extension ofhis pre-trial hearing on medication violationsin New Jersey yesterday, when the prosecutionasked for a postponement because a laboratoryhas not completed its analysis of itemsfound in Daley’s barn following a search March2. Prosecutor Mark Tarantino said it could beanother month before the tests were completed.In North Dakota, three months after a jury convictedRacing Services and it owner, SusanBala, the government still has done nothingabout the promised guilty plea of Gary Storm,the former CFO of the company. An assistantU.S. attorney, asked why by Fargo’s InforumNews, said he was “not at liberty to say whythe guilty plea hasn’t been filed at this time fora number of reasons.” Ms. Bala, meanwhile,has had her sentencing postponed until July 14to allow for more pre-sentence investigation,but the federal judge in the trial denied hermotion for acquittal. Her former partner inRacing Services, Raymundo Diaz Jr., pledguilty to three felony counts in return for alighter sentence, and is to be sentencedMay 20.