HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAPHILLY TO GET ‘CUTE CASINO’We’re not sure what “the cutest casino you’veever seen” will look like, but that’s what SteveWynn -- he of the big hotels and bright ideas --is promising the city of Philadelphia as he andWynn Resorts prepare to take over managementand presumably majority ownership inthe troubled Foxwoods casino on the DelawareRiver waterfront. One thing it will not contain isa high rise luxury hotel, a Wynn specialty. Themaster said he is dumping plans for a hotel inPhilly, something that conflicts with testimonygiven by the lawyer for local investors when hetestified before the state Gaming Control Boardon Jan. 27. That board set a $2,000 a day fine,retroactive to Dec. 1, after the investors hadmissed a deadline for plans. The fine will reach$186,000 by the time Wynn testifies before theboard next Wednesday, according to Philly.com.In a conference call to stock analysts this week,Wynn said his plans for a three-story casino andparking garage would be “cute” but not a destinationresort. “No Gulfstream jets, no helicopters,no nothing,” Wynn said. He said it wouldhave a steakhouse, an Italian restaurant and anAsian noodle house where gamblers could spenda couple of hours. “All my good old friends,” hesaid, “Italians and Jews and every conceivabletype of ethnic group that loves to shoot craps andgamble. And they’re 10 minutes away by car orbus from my casino on the river.” An Asian noodlehouse, Steve? No kosher deli? C’mon, youcan do better than that. There won’t be enoughAsian Jews to fill that noodle joint. When theanalysts pressed him for more details, he said, “Ithink that’s provocative and self-serving enoughfor now.”CANCEL THAT HAWAIIAN TRIPHawaiian legislators have killed a bill forlegalized gaming on Oahu, and won’teven discuss one for the outer islands.Executive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorFriday, February 26, 2010Public testimony was reported to be “overwhelminglynegative,” so the House Finance Committeescuttled the idea without further discussion.They said opponents had convinced them publicsentiment was worried about the impact on thetourist trade, the island’s image as an Eden inthe Pacific, and the possible affect on increasedcrime.CAL BOARD PAYS THE JAMMERFaced with the cost of a protracted trial, the CaliforniaHorse Racing Board yielded to its longtimetormentor, horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian,and agreed to pay him $35,000 for a 5-year-olddispute despite their attorney saying the case was“winnable.” The litigation-loving Jamgotchianhad sued the board because its then state stewardallegedly ordered his trainer to run a horseback in 2005 that he had scratched after scratchtime. A superior court judge had granted thesteward, George Slender, immunity because hewas protected by discretion as a steward. bloodhorse.comreports that a three-judge panel of theCalifornia Second Appellate District had ruledthat stewards had no discretion to bar an owner“from retrieving his or her horse before a raceis run.” There goes the neighborhood as far asscratch powers for stewards are concerned.NJ “RACING” MEANS RUNNERSIn New Jersey, when the press -- and presumablythe state as well -- refers to “horse racing,” trottersand pacers do not count. A proposed planto “save the horse racing industry” as reportedin a scoop in the Newark Star-Ledger reports ona state plan to cut the Monmouth Park runningseason to 50 days and triple the purses to a milliondollars a day, thus hopefully attracting thenation’s best horses. What about relief for thenation’s best trotters and pacers at the Meadowlands?They would benefit, the report goes, bygetting rid of the runners and enjoying alonger fall season, perhaps profitable.