HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorMonday, Nov. 8, 2010HARRISBURG IS UNDERWAYThe marathon four-day StandardbredHorse Sale at the Pennsylvania FarmShow complex in Harrisburg, PA, gotunderway this morning, and will roll onfor the next three days with 1,150 yearlingpacers and trotters going under thehammer. The Kentucky Select Sale, hammereddown last month, saw 791 colts,fillies and geldings sell, with the averageprice dropping 11%. Breeders and consignorsat Harrisburg are hoping for arepeat of last year’s auction, when pricesrose 6.6%. The first 10 horses sold thismorning averaged $32,950. After 20 headthe average had risen to $46,775, with thehighest priced yearling to that point a DonatoHanover trotting colt from HabitsLady that brought $150,000 on a bid fromJimmy Takter, sold by Peninsula Farmsas agent.An interesting feature at the sale is a 2011calendar featuring the exceptional equinephotography of David Landry and ClausAndersen, the star photographers of theCanadian Sportsman. A new feature thisyear, they sell for $20 in either U.S. or Canadiancurrency, at the magazine’s standat Harrisburg or from the magazine atBox 129 Straffordville, Ontario N0J 1Y0.MACAU SETS FAST PACECasino gambling in Macau, up 67 thisyear, is four times higher than LasVegas, with one, SJM, handlingmore than the entire Vegas strip.Another, Sands China, has seen a 329%rise in profitability in the first six monthsof this year. Britain’s Telegraph sayswith Chinese inflation due to hit 4% thismonth and with bank savings rates only2.5%, more and more high rollers arechoosing to gamble their money ratherthan watch the value of their savings beeaten away. The paper says the negativereturns on Chinese bank savings havehelped create huge bubbles in property,tea, fine wine and jade. In an interestingobservation not well known in NorthAmerica, the Telegraph says that researchshows visitors to Macau from mainlandChina come to gamble to win -- earningmoney is very important to them -- andare serious about it. That is unlike manyplayers from Hong Kong or Macau itself,who gamble more for leisure or entertainment,according to Desmond Lam, a professorat the University of Macau.TYRANNY OF FALSE CHOICESThat’s what Gil Medina, former secretaryof commerce in New Jersey, calls abattle between casinos in south Jerseyand the Meadowlands in the north. Hesays a consensus can be found, and thatthe state must find it. Sounding a note ofoptimism, he says “in spite of the surfaceconflicts that the commission report andlegislative summits may have engendered,I am confident that there is a path forwardthat will substantially address most of theconcerns of most shareholders, andthe state will take that path.”