By: Nicholas Sohr

Gov. Martin O’Malley managed to get the bickering corporate parents of the state’s thoroughbred racing industry in the same room this week, but Penn National and MI Developments have not yet agreed on a plan for the Maryland Jockey Club in 2011.

Liam Farrell, at The Capital, reported the meeting first.

Shaun Adamec, O’Malley’s spokesman, said the governor met Wednesday in the State House with Penn National Vice President Steve Snyder and MID officers Frank Stronach, the chairman and CEO, and Vice Chairman Dennis Mills.

“There weren’t a lot of concrete details discussed in terms of ways forward. It was the first time they sat down since the vote in Anne Arundel County,” Adamec told me. “I can tell you what the tone wasn’t. It wasn’t about circumventing what happened at the ballot box.”

“It was very forward-looking,” he said, meaning how do you keep a horse track afloat sinking the casino development at the mall?

Penn National and MID have two very different notions.

A quick refresher to bring you up to speed … Developer David Cordish won the right to build his casino at the Arundel Mills mall on Nov. 2. The next day, the jockey club announced it would stop live races at Laurel Park in 2011 and hold a limited meet at Pimlico around the Preakness. Just days later, Frank Stronach (the then-chairman who has since added CEO of MID to his list of titles) said he disagreed and wanted to maintain the racing schedule. And the day after that news broke, Penn National said it backed the original plan.

Since then, not much has changed.

“We don’t plan to comment on the details of our discussions, which are ongoing,” Penn spokesman D. Eric Schippers wrote in an e-mail Friday. “Our plan at this point is to file a request for reduced race dates at Pimlico and a termination of live racing at Laurel as previously indicated.”

MID did not respond to a request seeking comment.

MID controls 51 percent of the racing side of the club’s business and three of five board seats, but it and Penn have to agree on any major changes to the racing operations.

The two sides don’t have long to come to an agreement — racing days for 2011 are expected to be approved by the Maryland Racing Commission on Nov. 29 (and must be approved by Dec. 1).

“The main thing we’re doing is remaining open to whatever help they feel as though they need,” Adamec said. “All along I think the preference has been for there to be a private sector solution to this.”

But, he allowed: “There may come a time when the parties involved need some assistance from the state, whatever that may be.”