NEWS
Stronach to visit Maryland next week
Posted: Thursday, December 02, 2010 5:34 PM
LAUREL PARK
Jim McCue/MJC photo
by John Scheinman
With the future of Maryland racing in disarray, MI Developments Inc. founder and Chairman Frank Stronach will travel to the state next week to try to broker a deal for racing in 2011.
The Maryland Racing Commission rejected a plan put forth Monday by MI Developments and partner Penn National Gaming Inc. calling for 17 live days of racing in January at Laurel Park followed by 30 live days at Pimlico in April and May.
Both the commission and the Maryland horsemen sought a comprehensive plan for the future of Maryland racing as well as a slate of racing days at least equal to the 146 days being run this year.
With the rejection of the proposed 2011 schedule, the commission also declined to recognize Penn National Gaming as a valid licensee in the state, despite their contractual agreements with MI Developments in owning 49% of the Maryland Jockey Club.
“I will come down to Maryland next week,” Stronach said Thursday from his native Austria. “We’ll try to find common ground. It has to be done quickly. We’ve got a good relationship with the horsemen; the racing commission trusts us too.”
Stronach declined to comment on the status of a winter meeting in 2011 at Laurel Park; the fall meeting concludes December 18, and no arrangements for racing or simulcasting are scheduled beyond December 31—jeopardizing the future of thousands of racing-related jobs in Maryland. The four off-track outlets in the state also would lose their signals.
The lack of an agreement for 2011 also throws into doubt the future of the Preakness Stakes (G1), middle leg of the Triple Crown.
Stronach echoed what Mike Rogers, vice president of racing and gaming at MI Developments, said at the commission meeting Monday at Laurel Park: “The present model is broken.”
Stronach wants to meet with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association to come up with a new model, but MTHA President Richard Hoffberger said Stronach’s issues are with his business partners—i.e. Penn National—and not horsemen.
Hoffberger said Stronach gave him assurances, when the two met at Keeneland in September, that he would authorize 146 days of racing in 2011. An executive board, made up of three members from MI Developments and two from Penn National, however, approved by 5-0 vote the 47-day proposal that the commission ultimately rejected.
Rogers and Steve Snyder, senior vice president of corporate development for Penn National, both previously said that Stronach had signed off on the 47-day proposal, but neither could be reached for comment on Thursday.
“[Penn National] and [MI Developments] hope to maintain an open and constructive dialogue with the [Maryland] Racing Commission in the coming days and weeks with a hope to find a constructive resolution for the benefit of all parties,” said Eric Schippers, Penn National senior vice president of public affairs and government relations, in a prepared statement. “The action that the [racing commission] took [Monday] was rejecting the 2011 business plan for the operations of the [Maryland Jockey Club] and the race dates for 2011 that are a condition each year for the renewal of the racing license. [Penn National] has no intention of exiting the [joint venture] and will be working with our partners to explore all options for the operations of racing in Maryland.”
Penn National paid MI Developments $26.3-million for 49% of Maryland RE&R LLC, the racing and real estate entity set up to control Laurel Park, Pimlico, and the Bowie Training Center. Schippers noted that Penn National was willing to reach an agreement for future racing dates if it provides “a return on the considerable investment the owners have made in the racing industry in Maryland.”
Maryland Racing Commission Chairman Lou Ulman questioned whether Stronach had the power to pull together corporate consensus to present an operating plan for 2011.
At the commission meeting, Ulman attacked Snyder, of Penn National, saying “You all have not showed any good faith. It’s obvious your plan was to get slots, and without that plan you’re willing to let racing die.”
Snyder said at the commission meeting that the tracks could no longer afford to continue running a full slate of live racing at a loss of millions of dollars a year.
“I don’t know what Penn National wants, and what Mr. Stronach can do without his partner’s permission,” Ulman said Thursday. “Until we know what it would take to run 146 days, I don’t think we have an alternative plan.”
John Scheinman is a Thoroughbred Times correspondent based in Washington, D.C.
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Posted by: Rich, Berea, OH on December 02, 2010 at 06:52 PM
Besides Adena Springs and the breeding farms in North America, is there anything this guy has operated in the industry that has not been left in disastrous shape? He has done more than any person or entity to destroy Thoroughbred racing in the United States....but he continues to laugh all the way to the bank.
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