Virginia horses to race in Maryland this year

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia Thoroughbreds will race this fall in Maryland. Meanwhile, horsemen here are pressing forward on a plan to bring racing back to Virginia in its entirety as early as next year.

The venue for Thoroughbred racing next year won’t necessarily be at the Colonial Downs race track in New Kent County, which surrendered its license last fall.

It could be at Morven Park in Leesburg, if all goes according to plan, said Debbie Easter, executive director of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association and president of the Virginia Equine Alliance, on Friday.

“Hopefully we will have racing at Morven Park,” said Jeb Hannum, executive director of the Virginia Equine Alliance, which is made up of horse groups including the Virginia Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “We are working out the details, but no contract with Morven Park has been signed.”

In the meantime, the Laurel Park race track in Maryland is this year’s primary site for Thoroughbred racing.

“We are definitely going to run the Virginia-bred and Virginia-sired stakes races in Maryland as we did last year,” Easter said.

“We hope to run our graded stakes there as well,” Easter said, referring to horses graded among the top echelons of horses.

If the graded horses don’t run this year for the second consecutive year of no racing, they will lose their rankings — “and it’s hard to get those grades,” Easter said.

Virginia doesn’t have any Thoroughbreds in the topone-graded category, but it has two- and three-graded horses that in previous years ran in the Virginia Derby and other higher-purse races at Colonial Downs.

“It can take 20 years to have a race get graded status,” Hannum said. Virginia has four graded-status races, and that is unique, he said.

Running the graded stakes races in Maryland will help ensure that Virginia can keep that status, whether racing resumes at Colonial Downs next year or at another site such as Morven Park, Hannum said.

Virginia-bred and -sired stakes races will run at the Laurel Park race track Sept. 26. If the graded stakes races are approved by Maryland’s horsemen’s group, they will take place there Sept. 12-13, Sept. 19-20 and Sept. 26-27, Easter said.

Colonial Downs, the only track that had an unlimited license to run a parimutuel race course in Virginia, shut down Nov. 1 after failing to come to an agreement with Virginia Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

The disagreement centered on the length of the racing schedule — the track wanted fewer race days, and the horsemen wanted more. The ongoing rift led to no Thoroughbred racing last summer at Colonial Downs for the first time in the track’s 17-year history.

Colonial Downs, which is owned by Colorado-based Jacobs Entertainment, closed all racing and wagering venues, including EZ Horseplay, the track’s advance deposit wagering system, April 7.

“We would still love to run in Colonial Downs,” Easter said. “But we need to go forward and bring racing operations in Virginia back to the horsemen.”

Colonial Downs had planned to apply for a limited license to run a high-end meet this fall. However, no one at the track or associated with the track could be reached Thursday or Friday for comment.

“There is some speculation that the track will apply for a license,” said Bernard J. Hettel, executive secretary of the Virginia Racing Commission, whose mission is to promote, sustain and grow a native horse racing industry in Virginia.

At its July 1 meeting, the commission approved the proposal to preserve the Virginia-bred and graded stakes races formerly run at Colonial Downs by moving them to the Maryland track. It recognized the Virginia Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association as the majority horsemen’s group. Colonial Downs had attempted last year to create a new horsemen’s group.

The commission also approved the Virginia Equine Alliance as the industry stakeholder group, allowing the nonprofit to receive 4 percent of online wagering by residents of Virginia on out-of-state races. The money, previously allocated to Colonial Downs, will be used to help offset the cost of live racing. The panel is expected to approve the alliance’s budget at its July 29 meeting, allowing it to identify sites for racing ,with Morven Park among the primary sites being considered.

Great Meadow Park in The Plains is hosting for the first time an all-flat race Sept. 20 to compensate for the dearth of Thoroughbred racing in Virginia this year, in addition to its traditional Gold Cup steeplechase Oct. 24.

Standardbred harness racing will be at Oak Ridge in Nelson County — Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 17-18 — and possibly remain there in the future.