Maryland Business

This weekend, it’s going to be a little hard not to get your Preak on. Or hail Kegasus. Or whatever you really want to call it. Maryland’s Christmas of horse racing is in town this Saturday, and all eyes will be on Animal Kingdom to win the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course.

If you’d rather just watch the Preakness Stakes festivities from home, there are other events to enjoy too:

As part of the Preakness Celebration, hot air balloons start Thursday at Turf Valley and go until Saturday at 6 p.m. Admission is free, while tethered ballon rides cost a small fee.

And the Children’s Hospital at Johns Hopkins will hold its 80th annual turtle derby Friday. For a small fee, spectators can name a turtle and enter it to win a cash prize. Races begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Preclinical Teaching Building courtyard on the Johns Hopkins medical campus.

And if you’re looking for something more refined than the infield, there’s the annual Wine in the Woods event at Symphony Woods in Columbia. Going on both Saturday and Sunday, wine tasters can enter for $25 to $30, designated drivers can join for $10 to $15, and children older than 3 years get in for $5. (The super underage set gets in for free.)

The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival is also going on this weekend at Sandy Point State Park Saturday and Sunday. Tickets cost $55 to $120 and all the action starts at 11 a.m. The lineup includes The Lee Boys, John Mayall, Chris Isaak, Dana Fuchs, Little Feat and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

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Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom came back to his… err… kingdom, at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton Tuesday.

The horse is expected to jog on the main track at the complex at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Animal Kingdom’s trailer left Barn 22 at Churchill Downs at 5:15 this morning, according to the Maryland Jockey Club.

Trainer Graham Motion said he hasn’t decided whether Animal Kingdom will work before the Preakness. So far, the list of Preakness contenders remains at 20, consisting of seven that ran in the Derby and 13 newcomers.

Baltimore’s 136th Preakness Stakes will be held May 21.

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The Maryland Jockey Club announced Monday it has an app of its own.

The app, which will provide instant, real-time access to the latest Preakness Stakes updates, is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones.

So while you’re out in the infield or the stands during Preakness later this month, you can get all sorts of historical data, blog posts and wagering info. And the app will still be handy during daily races too, giving pre-race program notes, as well as scratches, results and video replays.

“We thought it was logical to launch this new platform around our biggest event, but plan on utilizing it year-round,” said Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas.

The app is already available to be downloaded from Apple’s App Store, while the app tailored for Androids and BlackBerry phones will be ready for consumption later this week.

The 136th running of the $1 million Preakness — the middle jewel of the Triple Crown — is Saturday, May 21.

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And so we are left, 24 hours after he was unleashed, to ponder Kegasus.

The half-man, half-horse centaur, the manimal who rips holes in the fabric of awesomeness, has undoubtedly done what Preakness InfieldFest organizers wanted — generated buzz.

And any buzz (pardon the pun) is good buzz, I suppose, if your intent is to cut through the clutter of today’s media landscape. If Charlie Sheen has taught us anything, it’s that it helps to be outlandish when you’re screaming for attention in a multi-platform world.

And who needs tiger blood and Adonis DNA when you have four hooves, a beer gut and a nipple ring? Winning.

That said, what do we make of Kegasus — who reminds me of Gibby Haynes — strictly as a marketing vehicle, mythical or otherwise?

As this story in the Sun points out, it does speak to what most consider to be the Preakness infield’s key demographic. Think dudes in their 20s who wouldn’t know a furlong from a beer bong and no doubt long for the days of “The Running of the Urinals” at Pimlico.

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Last week’s list of the five most-read business stories by Daily Record staffers was topped by the latest twist in the Cafe Hon contretemps. Also cracking the list was a local reverberation of the auto industry’s troubles in Detroit, and the latest push to get Maryland’s horse racing industry on the right track.

1. Cafe Hon’s Whiting apologizes for ‘hon’ trademark controversy
Denise Whiting did not apologize for getting a trademark on the word “hon,” and did not say she planned to drop the legal protection she has on the well-known Baltimore term of endearment, Ben Mook reported. Instead, she said she was sorry for comments she made to the media that led to confusion that the trademark would limit people’s right to use the term in conversation.

2. Baltimore Travel Plaza bus terminal could become conference center
After years of declining business despite its proximity to Interstate 95, the multi-bay bus terminal at the Baltimore Travel Plaza will close for good, according to the story by Melody Simmons.

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From horse racing to the NFL’s Tom Brady to the Baltimore Orioles, sports dominated the most popular stories generated by The Daily Record’s business reporters last week. And the latest twist in the city’s quest for a new sports arena cracked the top five after only day on our website.

1. Penn National backs plan to close Laurel, cut racing in Maryland

“From a business perspective, again, these are losing operations that will continue to be in decline without some alternative revenue stream or these types of steep cuts,” said D. Eric Schippers, a Penn National spokesman. The company’s position made public rifts that have developed in the corporate family that runs thoroughbred racing in Maryland.

2. Under Armour signs Tom Brady

For its first NFL quarterback endorser Under Armour aimed high, and the Baltimore-based company didn’t miss, signing three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady of the New England Patriots to help it wrest market share from rivals like Nike Inc.

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The new owners of Pimlico Race Course are upping the ante in a big way for next year’s Preakness Stakes. Actually it’s not just big. It’s humongous. Like multimillion dollar humongous.

MI Developments Inc. announced Friday that it will award a $5.5 million bonus to the winner of the 2011 Preakness Stakes to be split $5 million for the owner and $500,000 to the jockey — if the horse wins two earlier races at MID tracks.

Dubbed “Preakness 5.5,” horses qualify for the prize by winning in one of the preliminary races at MID-owned Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields. It’s a pretty smart move by the Ontario-based company to generate better competition and larger fields — which lead to more wagering and more money for MID — at its tracks next spring.

Here’s the breakdown on how horses/owners will qualify:

At Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields:
The winner of the Grade III El Camino Real (at Golden Gate) and the winner of Santa Anita’s Grade II Bob Lewis or the Grade II San Felipe, will qualify for the Preakness 5.5 if the horse goes on to win the Santa Anita Derby.

At Gulfstream Park:
A horse must win either the Grade III Holy Bull Stakes or the Grade II Fountain of Youth, and then go on to win the Grade I Florida Derby.

$5.5 million may sound like a hefty price to pay (especially when you consider this is the parent company of Magna Entertainment Corp., which didn’t want to pay the $28.5 million license fee for its Laurel Park slots bid last year). But MID is getting more than paid back by the better competition it’ll generate at its other tracks. And of course, there’s always the chance that no horse will qualify. (And if I were MID I’d be praying to all kinds of gods for that to happen. I’m just saying.)

But this is horse racing after all. And everything’s a gamble.

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According to filmmaker Jason Neff, “everybody said a race like this could never happen.”

On Preakness weekend, eight retired women jockeys are running in the first “Lady Legends Race for the Cure,” organized by the Maryland Jockey Club and benefiting the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation, the world’s largest breast cancer organization.

The race will take place on Black-Eyed Susan Day, Friday, May 14 at Pimlico Race Course.

So why is a filmmaker commenting on this race? Well, he and Emmy Award-winning producer Linda Ellman have been following the eight women around for the last few months as they get in shape for the race, which also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first woman jockey to ride in a Triple Crown race.

According to a news release, the feature-length documentary “Jock” will tell the “story of the courageous female jockeys who overcame sexual harassment, ridicule and life-threatening injuries to wage a gallant fight for the right to ride more than 40 years ago.” Next month’s race will be the closing act of the documentary.

Here are your riders:
• Barbara Jo Rubin, age 60, first woman to win against a man at a recognized racetrack, 41 years ago.
• Jennifer Rowland, 57, top pioneer female rider on the Maryland Circuit in the 70’s.
• Cheryl White, 56, the first African-American female jockey.
• PJ Cooksey, 52, the third all-time leading female jockey with over 2000 wins and breast cancer survivor.
• Mary Wiley Wagner, top 5 apprentice jockey in the nation in 1987 and breast cancer survivor.
• Andrea Seefeldt, Kentucky Derby and Preakness jockey.
• Gwen Jocson, record holder for the most wins in a single year by a woman.
• Mary Russ Tortora, 56, first woman to win a Grade 1 stakes race.

Diane Crump was the first female to ride in a Triple Crown race and placed 15th aboard Fathom in the Kentucky Derby in 1970. In 1993, Julie Krone was the first woman to win a Triple Crown race, taking the Belmont aboard Colonial Affair.

This might be an interesting marketing tool for Pimlico and the Preakness organizers if they’re able to get the word out enough. One thing horse racing has struggle with in the last oh, decade or two, is connecting fans with the jockeys. Sure we all know Big Brown and Rachel Alexandra but race horses come and go — jockeys are around for a lot longer.

Of course, these women are retired and this race is a one-shot deal. Any connection a race watcher might have with them won’t last long. But if track marketers can find similarly compelling story lines among jockeys who are still racing and push those out there, who knows? At this rate, it can’t hurt.

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Cloverleaf President Kelley Rogers testifies at a Racing Commission meeting last year

Today’s story on the potential end of Rosecroft Raceway contained a lot more back story and details than any conscionable reporter could include in a daily news story.

But that’s what the Internet is for, right? If you’re interested in more, here it is:

I have to say, the judge’s opinion denying the sale of Rosecroft to Greenbelt-area developer Mark Vogel was a pretty enlightening window into his attitude about this case. After laying out Rosecroft’s debts and sale plan to Vogel, Judge Paul Mannes turned to the objectors.

“The opponents to the motion are competitors of the Debtor for the gambling dollar, so the court takes the high-minded tone of their objections relating to the public interest and the racing industry with a grain of salt. The court believes that they would not be disappointed in the least were CEI [Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc.] to disappear from the scene, so that they would not have to share any portion of the Maryland gamblig dollar with them.  … [But] the requirement of good faith does not require that they act in selfless disinterest.”

I asked Alan Foreman, the general counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (one of the objectors) about this statement. Here’s his response:

“If we wanted to put Rosecroft out of business and recapture them, we wouldn’t have agreed to the 2006 agreement,” he said, referring to an agreement between Rosecroft and the Maryland thoroughbred industry that authorized the track to take bets on thoroughbred races for a fee of $5.9 million a year.

A year ago, Cloverleaf president Kelley Rogers appeared before the Maryland Racing Commission and said Rosecroft was refusing to make its payments because it could no longer afford them as its annual handle had declined significantly. The commission pulled the track’s thoroughbred simulcast signal and the two breeds have been at a standstill ever since.

Moving on, Mannes also notes Rosecroft is planning to close its backstretch facilities next month, so horses for Rosecroft’s planned race days later this year would have to be trucked in from another location.

“If [the sale is] not approved, the proposition is that the Debtor will run out of money and the enterprise will crater. That may well be the result. But who benefits from the proposed transaction? Certainly not the unsecured creditors as the sale will only produce funds to pay a portion of the administrative expenses and … a small portion of the unsecured claims that are assumed by the prospective purchaser. The [standardbred] horsemen might have the benefit of nine racing days, but with the closing of the backstretch facilities on May 1st, who will be around to benefit from that short racing schedule?

“What the Debtor did here is to decide, at the time of the filing of the case, that it would sell out to Mr. Vogel. To that end, it negotiated an agreement that precluded the marketing of its assets to anyone else.”

On Monday, Vogel said he didn’t know why the judge said that, other than his efforts to pass a bill allowing poker tables at Rosecroft may appear to the judge as being more focused on alternative gaming.

“I’ve always looked at the number one goal as live racing,” he said. “My purchase price guarantees live racing at least until slots money comes in.”

So now that I’ve laid all this on you, it’s quite possible you might be more confused than ever about what’s really happening. Welcome to covering horse racing in Maryland …

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The group attempting to block developer David Cordish’s casino near Arundel Mills  is getting closer to its goal.

Last week the coalition of petitioners, made up of anti-slots community and civic groups and the Maryland Jockey Club, filed 16,702 additional signatures with the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections. The signatures are in support of a referendum to allow county citizens to vote on whether to permit zoning for the slots casino.

So far, the board has validated 13,136 signatures from 23,702 filed last month; 18,790 signatures are needed to place the zoning ordinance on the November ballot.

The Maryland Jockey Club is bankrolling most of this operation, and at last count, has paid $377,000 to the firm it hired to collect the signatures. Just a little coincidence here — the jockey club filed the additional signatures on the anniversary of the day its parent company declared bankruptcy. I wonder if Magna Entertainment Corp. sent them a card …

After the first set of signatures was filed, Cordish did a little filing of his own with a lawsuit that claims the signatures are not valid because they were collected in a fraudulent manner. Rob Annicelli, president of Stop Slots at Arundel Mills is not fazed.

“Neither two blizzards nor a baseless lawsuit by a casino developer could stop the extraordinary will and tireless efforts of county residents to place the slots zoning ordinance on the ballot,” he said in a statement. “Filing the baseless lawsuit is just another example of the kind of intimidating and bullying tactics that certain advocates of the zoning ordinance have employed. The people of Anne Arundel County really resent those kinds of intentionally intimidating and threatening tactics.”

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