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, EditorWednesday, April 28, 2010WED’S MENU: SMORGASBORD IN MICHIGAN, voters will have a chance to considertwo gaming expansion measures, IF twoIN MINNESOTA, a bid to tie racino slots to anew Vikings football stadium was defeated in the groups are able to obtain 380,126 signatures byHouse, where it had been attached to an unrelatedbill. Opponents, who are concerned with issue in the David Brooks federal fraud trial. TheJuly 5....ON LONG ISLAND, more dirty doings atMinnesota Indian casinos more than the state’s messy affair now includes revelations about thetwo racetracks, voted 99-31 not to consider the number of extramarital sleep-ins of Dawn Schlegel,a former executive in the Brooks empire. Theproposed amendment....IN KENTUCKY, Gov.Steve Beshear said he would not consider any InstantRacing action until the legislature passed a more than one encounter, as testified, and hopeddefense claimed it had evidence Ms. Schlegel hadbudget. The state attorney general had ruled the to defuse her testimony as less than credible asgovernor had the power to act unilaterally on a result. The judge asked for metadata provingthe contention, and was given two pieces ofhis own, but he announced he would not untila budget was passed. The legislature ended its paper that angered her enough to file contemptsession without approving slots at tracks, which charges against Brooks. New York’s NewsdayBeshear favors, and he is considering calling a and Horseman and Fair World’s harnessracing.special session next month....Also in Kentucky, com continue to report the day to day chargesthe usual dire predictions for racing at the two-day and countercharges, as the USTA and New YorkKentucky International Equine Summit, where the stays of Brooks’ suspension allow his regimentusual cast of suspects intoned the usual comments, of pacers to perform....Also on Long Island, theincluding one by Oaklawn Park’s Louis Cella Nassau County executive Edward Mangano isthat tracks without slots are doomed, and agreementon that from Penn National’s Chris McEr-Indian Nation to build a casino on the 77-acrepushing for consideration by the Shinnecocklean. Keeneland’s Nick Nicholson suggested the site of the rundown Nassau Coliseum. The Indiansare awaiting hopeful approval as a certifiedattendees smell the roses while on hand duringKentucky Derby week, and presumably most tribe by the federal government....IN OHIO, thewill....HARRAH’S ENTERTAINMENT, run by Columbus Government Examiner waved a journalisticfinger at the Columbus Dispatch, sayingformer Harvard whiz Gary Loveman, reporteda first quarter loss of $195.6 million, higher than that powerful newspaper neglected to let readersa year ago when the company lost $132.7 million.The report did not include industry rumors a 20% interest in property the paper was tout-know that one of its affiliated companies ownedthat Harrah’s was seeking to sell its Las Vegas ing as a better site for the future Columbus casinothan one proposed by Penn National Gam-Rio hotel property....IN DELAWARE, the groupseeking to rebuild old Georgetown Raceway harnesstrack, dead for decades, again suggested pro-a 20-year jail term has been set down for formering....Not current but previously unreported here,viding 51% of its earnings to charity. There are harness driver Hugh Stevens, and a 5-year termthree other candidates, all in a state as small as for his wife Sandra, for hauling ephedrine thatDelaware spelling more competition for racinos the judge said could have been made into “astronomicaland astonishing” amounts of meth-at HTA members Dover Downs and HarringtonRaceway. One, seeking a casino in Millsboro,said Georgetown’s Hail Mary effortbattle between Stevens and the federal govamphetamine.The sentencing ended a six-yearwas a recipe for certain failure.ernment.