Racing commission allows Ocean Downs to cancel meet 

Posted: 6:55 pm Tue, July 20, 2010
By Nicholas Sohr
Daily Record Business Writer

LAUREL — If you’re looking for harness racing this year, head north.

The 2010 racing calendar at Ocean Downs was all but cleared Tuesday when the Maryland Racing Commission gave the Eastern Shore track permission to cancel its regular meets. The move left the state without a working harness racing track in 2010.

Ocean Downs, on U.S. Route 50 in Worcester County, was awarded a casino license last year, and delays in construction and renovation of the slots parlor next to the track cut deep into the racing season.

The casino is expected to open in late December, nearly seven months after the grand opening on Memorial Day weekend that track officials had originally projected.

William Fasy, chief operating officer of the casino’s parent company, Ocean Enterprise 589 LLC, said construction at the site made it impossible to safely conduct racing operations there.

Ocean Downs will, however, host special state races on four Saturdays in August. The Maryland Sire Stakes and Standardbred Fund races are open to horses bred in Maryland. Purses are paid using revenue collected from the industry. Betting is not conducted on those races.

Track officials and industry representatives have discussed different options for 2011 to entice trainers, owners and drivers back to the state after a yearlong harness racing hiatus in Maryland.

The bankrupt Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George’s County closed July 1. Rosecroft, which used to have 100 racing days a year, stopped holding live races in 2008.

“We have an understanding that the [2010] purses roll over, so we’re protected there,” said Thomas Cooke, president of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners’ Association, a harness racing industry group that owns Rosecroft.

Cooke said he expects members of the Maryland harness racing industry to set out for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and possibly Delaware to find work this season. And racing fans could follow.

“When the public has no place to go, we know what happens. They go to Pennsylvania,” Cooke said. “And we’ll have a very hard time in getting them back.”

The association has also asked Ocean Downs to expand its racing calendar next year beyond the scheduled 40 days spread over three months in the summer.

Fasy said that issue had not been decided.

“We’re not trying to dodge our commitment to them [the horsemen],” he said.

The commission voted 5-0 to allow the track to cancel its regular racing calendar. Ocean Downs would have run the risk of losing its racing license if the commission denied its request.