The Maryland Thoroughbred Industry
As the Preakness draws near, all is (more or less) quiet on the Maryland Thoroughbred front, once it was determined that the new owner of the flat tracks is the old owner.
The only “new” Thoroughbred racing news relates to slots. On April 1, the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections certified the signatures gathered on the petition to require a county referendum to approve slots at the site owned by the Cordish Companies near Arundel Mills. According to the Daily Record, the Board validated only 22,967 signatures, and invalidated 17,441 – but the 22, 967 were enough to push the issue to a referendum. The Maryland Jockey Club helped to finance the petition drive.
Click here for more information.
In the meantime, the State has given the green light for acquisition of the actual slot machines.
Roadblocks for Rosecroft
Meanwhile, Maryland’s Standardbred industry remains in the news.
The Daily Record reports that “a bankruptcy judge has denied the proposed sale of Rosecroft Raceway to developer Mark Vogel, calling it a ‘sell out’ that’s unfair to the track’s creditors and the harness racing industry. The track’s owners must instead sell Rosecroft through a traditional Chapter 11 reorganization plan…[track] owner Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc. notified its employees and shareholders that if the track does not succeed with its legislative initiatives this session, which ends April 12, Rosecroft will close on April 19… ‘This is a ginned-up controversy by the current management at Rosecroft, and their wounds are self-inflicted,’ said Alan Foreman, general counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, a creditor that objected to the Vogel sale.”
Click here to read the rest of Liz Farmer’s April 5 report in The Daily Record.
