An excerpt today from The Baltimore Sun discusses the closing of Rosecroft Raceway, and that “Rosecroft is closer to the glue factory than anyone else, and the (Maryland) Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association seem to be counting on the slots delay to finish it off.”
The above statement is in reference to the thoroughbreds cutting off Rosecroft’s simulcasting signals because the track sought a renegotiation of its 2006 agreement to pay $5.9 million a year for the signals, a debt it could not handle, to $2 million. It reportedly has not paid for two years.
Jay Hancock wrote in The Baltimore Sun that, “It’s a stretch for the thoroughbred crowd to act all proper and offended. There are piles of unpaid racing bills. Everybody’s waiting for the dammed-up money from slot machines, which was supposed to save standardbred harness racing and thoroughbred racing alike....Without Rosecroft there to take a cut of the slots proceeds earmarked for track improvements and racing purses when the casinos start opening this year, the Jockey Club’s Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park and everybody else could have more for themselves.”
Tom Cooke, president of the harness horsemen’s Cloverleaf SOA, said of the signal ban, “They knew how to put the choke-hold on us. It took longer than they expected, but they knew that cutting the simulcast signal would be the coup de grace to standardbred racing in Maryland.”
Writer Hancock said, “Not exactly. Harness racing at Ocean Downs racetrack on the Eastern Shore, due to get a slots operation, should be fine.” Although Secretary of State John McDonough is talking about “shuttle diplomacy,” it awaits the return of out-of-town attorney Alan Foreman.
(Harness Tracks of America)