Action on Suffolk Racing Dates Delayed Again

Blood-Horse

Though Suffolk Downs had published a condition sheet for races Aug. 8, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission July 23 delayed action on the track’s application for three live racing dates this year.

The two-week delay stems from the possibility that The Stronach Group, which owns major racetracks throughout the United States, could execute a lease arrangement with the Suffolk Downs ownership team for race meets. The MGC voted 4-1 to delay action until at least Aug. 6.

Suffolk Downs also published a condition sheet for a lucrative Saturday of racing in July, but the race day wasn’t held after a group of horsemen said a three-day meet isn’t sufficient.

During the July 23 meeting, a representative of a sizable group of horsemen that splintered from the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association testified that The Stronach Group might want to take over the track. Bill Lagorio, a 30-year veteran New England trainer and the group’s leader, testified that the The Stronach Group’s plan would be to lease the track for live racing while bundling the lucrative simulcast signal with its properties in other states.

Lagorio said The Stronach Group has expressed interest but a statement from the track owner was not definitive.

“The horsemen contacted The Stronach Group to see if there was any interest,” The Stronach Group said July 23. “We contacted the ownership of Suffolk Downs to see if there was any way to participate in the racing operation. We’re a racing company, we look at racing properties. Boston is a big market and we have a lot of racing content. There is absolutely nothing in place after a few calls were made.”

After Suffolk Downs’ gaming partner, Mohegan Sun, was bypassed for the single Boston-area casino license in favor of Wynn Resorts by gaming commissioners last September, track ownership announced live racing would end at the 80-year-old track because it was not economically feasible and it had lost in excess of $70 million in the last few years.

Suffolk Downs initially did not apply for 2015 dates but the New England HBPA filed a one-day “placeholder application” by the Oct. 1 deadline. Over the winter, track management and the horsemen’s group worked out a deal for a two-year lease agreement, and the horsemen planned to be able to operate the track for a 50-day meet in 2015-16.

But with race-ready horses and money both in short supply, the New England HBPA maintained it was impossible to cover operating expenses and fill the cards. The organization hoped to be able to tap into the state’s new Race Horse Development Fund—it will be fueled by a percentage of future gaming revenue and licensing fees mandated for purses, breeders, and backstretch welfare—for a portion of the operating costs, but said the numbers still did not work.

Then, favorable legislation passed in March that extended the track’s racing license and authorized Suffolk Downs to continue to hold the simulcast rights through July 31, 2016, as long as the track hosts a minimum of one live racing day per year. Management and the New England HBPA ultimately arrived at a deal by which the track would operate a meet of three days in 2015 with a festival of racing to be held on a Saturday in July, August, and September, and purses to be paid in excess of $500,000 per day.

The dissident group, which is comprised of local owners, trainers, and breeders, bitterly objected to the three-day meet because they believe it would favor bigger outfits from out of state shipping in to compete for purses at their expense. So the MGC tabled the dates application at its June hearing to gather more information, and the July program was scrapped.

Now the August date is also out of the question, and any potential dates would have to be pushed back deeper into the fall.

“It’s too little, too late,” Suffolk Downs COO Chip Tuttle said. “The irony is that this very panel had the ability to ensure the long-term future health of the racing industry. I don’t know what to expect in two weeks. The Stronach Group is a very reputable and respectable racetrack operator, but they have had 10 months to kick the tires and express any legitimate interest, and we have never seen a proposal from them. We have had only the most glancing conversations.”

Tuttle, who was clearly disappointed in the MGC vote to wait another two weeks, said there are no saviors waiting in the wings. Though the Carney family at one time offered to hold two fair meets at its Brockton Fairgrounds this summer, they are instead pursuing the resort casino license reserved for the southeastern region of the state, and the proposal doesn’t include a Thoroughbred racetrack on the property.

“There is no other entity that has come forward and proposed to lease the facility or race in Massachusetts,” Tuttle said. “The Brockton Fairgrounds exists but has no proposal for live racing. It’s not as if anyone else is offering to build a track in Massachusetts. I think people understand there are daunting economic circumstances to this business right now.”

Lou Raffetto, a consultant for the New England HBPA who preceded Tuttle as the COO at Suffolk Downs, was outraged with the MGC’s inaction and the tone of the hearing.

“I’m speechless at this point,” he said. “To allow the leader of the dissidents to get up and talk about a potential offer that realistically has no merit in the long run? They can talk about it all they want, but as soon as the Stronach people come and take one look at the balance sheet of Suffolk Downs, they’re going to run so far in the other direction, and the horsemen will be left hanging.

“There is no way in the world that any other entity can come in here and lease this track and make it viable. I’ve seen the balance sheet and that’s the fact.”

Lagorio said his group would prefer that Suffolk Downs not race at all this year and instead the $1.7 million available from the Race Horse Development Fund for purses be reserved for a more substantial meet next year and beyond.

“For the last seven years, the concentration of Suffolk Downs was to get a casino and not to promote racing,” he said. “Stronach sees the value of the Boston market. Their product is strong all over the country and they have a model that works. They feel as though that model would thrive in Massachusetts.

“They run the best racetracks in the country and they know how to do it. Their intention would be to lease with an option to build a new racetrack. Who better to build a racetrack than the best in the business?”

George Brown, chairman of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association, agreed with the MGC’s decision.

“Speaking for the breeders, we want racing and we want as much racing as possible,” said Brown, who normally has 25 to 30 foals per year on the farm that has been in his family for 150 years but this year has just five foals. “Without a plan to have future racing, we are dead because no one is going to breed any horses if they don’t know there is a future.

“All of my payers left and you can’t blame them. I don’t know why everyone is fighting when there should be one solid group working together. Then if it doesn’t work, go to Plan B.”

Suffolk Downs’ proposed three days of racing include nine Massachusetts-bred stakes each worth $50,000, with three to be run on each day. State law allows those stakes to be run at Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack, where many of the local trainers are currently stabled.

“For the breeders that is Plan B, but I’m talking about for everybody,” Brown said. “We need racing or we’re all out of business. We’ll come back in two weeks and see what happens.”

Raffetto, who has been involved in the Thoroughbred industry for more than 40 years, is well aware that the New England HBPA, not the dissident group, is the legal representative of the local horsemen.

“The fact that the gaming commission would not consider granting the application of the current licensee, who has the agreement with the New England HBPA, in order to give The Stronach Group a better negotiating position to lease the track is beyond my comprehension,” he said.