“Horse racing board OKs Oak Tree meeting at Hollywood Park” plus 3 more |
- Horse racing board OKs Oak Tree meeting at Hollywood Park
- Horse-racing backers show up in force for gaming summit
- Horse Racing Law Suit
- NJ lawmakers consider horse racing's future
| Horse racing board OKs Oak Tree meeting at Hollywood Park Posted: 10 Sep 2010 06:32 PM PDT la-sp-oak-tree-20100911-13 The California Horse Racing Board gave final approval Friday for the Oak Tree Racing Assn. to hold its fall meeting from Sept. 30 through Oct. 31 at Hollywood Park. Since 1969, Oak Tree has held its meeting at Santa Anita, but issues over the condition of the track surface at Santa Anita left Oak Tree officials embracing Hollywood Park as its home for this year. The CHRB vote was 5-0 with one abstention. Some concern was expressed that the Northern California racing community could be affected by the decision of Oak Tree to hold night racing for the first time. There will be three Thursday night cards and three Friday night cards. The opening-night card on Thursday, Sept. 30 will begin with a first post at 7:05 p.m. There will be back-to-back night racing cards on Oct. 21-22 and Oct. 28-29 as the track experiments with trying to attract a younger demographic by holding concerts after races. Oak Tree officials last week also announced that it intended to hold its 2011 autumn meeting at Hollywood Park, not at Del Mar as planned. Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree, said that environmental reports for the low-lying areas of Del Mar during October would take longer than first thought. But Chillingworth has said that Oak Tree's long-range plan is to establish a permanent home for its meeting at Del Mar. eric.sonheimer@latimes.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Horse-racing backers show up in force for gaming summit Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:35 AM PDT For updates from the meeting, click here for our Meadowlands Matters blog.
Hundreds of horse-racing supporters who helped pack the Pegasus restaurant at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Friday applauded a variety of suggestions to bring slot machines to the site. The event was the second of three gaming summits being held by state Senate and Assembly Democrats, and once again horse racing backers were vocal in their concern that the Meadowlands track and Monmouth Park might be closed. Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, drew the loudest applause when he suggested having a state referendum on Atlantic City's monopoly on casino gambling. But Nicholas Amato, a former official with the state's Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority, said that the only way to save horse racing and the Atlantic City casino industry was to end the notion that it's the casinos' fault that horse racing has faltered. That sentiment was enthusiastically backed by southern New Jersey leaders such as state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May. Speaking to the increasing competition from newly opened Pennsylvania casinos near New Jersey, Amato dismissed the sites as "ugly warehouses" filled with slot machines. "Those warehouses are making hundreds of millions of dollars," Caputo countered. Van Drew insisted that adding Meadowlands gambling would only make Atlantic City's — thus, the state's — problems even worse. He added that the counties with the three highest unemployment rates are Atlantic County and its neighboring counties. The clashes came even as legislators and speakers repeatedly vowed to try to avoid having the future of the two struggling industries become a "north vs. south" issue. Andrew Zezas, the chief executive of Real Estate Strategies Corp, drew boos for even discussing the possibility of alternative uses for the racetrack site, including industrial, office or residential options. "I'm not recommending anything," Zezas told the crowd. Bill Derrough, an investment banker representing the lenders who took control of the Xanadu project last month, expressed confidence in Xanadu's future and said that "we expect to name a new developer in the near future." Derrough added that any new developer would likely keep the same mix of entertainment and retail as originally envisioned in 2002, although there could be some adjustments "presumably including changes to the facade." Xanadu's multicolored facade has been the target of extensive criticism. For updates throughout the day, click here for our Meadowlands Matters blog For updates from the meeting, click here for our Meadowlands Matters blog.  ELIZABETH LARA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dennis R. Robinson, right, President & CEO, New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority addresses the panel at the second Gaming Summit in East Rutherford.
Hundreds of horse-racing supporters who helped pack the Pegasus restaurant at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Friday applauded a variety of suggestions to bring slot machines to the site. The event was the second of three gaming summits being held by state Senate and Assembly Democrats, and once again horse racing backers were vocal in their concern that the Meadowlands track and Monmouth Park might be closed. Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, drew the loudest applause when he suggested having a state referendum on Atlantic City's monopoly on casino gambling. But Nicholas Amato, a former official with the state's Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority, said that the only way to save horse racing and the Atlantic City casino industry was to end the notion that it's the casinos' fault that horse racing has faltered. That sentiment was enthusiastically backed by southern New Jersey leaders such as state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May. Speaking to the increasing competition from newly opened Pennsylvania casinos near New Jersey, Amato dismissed the sites as "ugly warehouses" filled with slot machines. "Those warehouses are making hundreds of millions of dollars," Caputo countered. Van Drew insisted that adding Meadowlands gambling would only make Atlantic City's — thus, the state's — problems even worse. He added that the counties with the three highest unemployment rates are Atlantic County and its neighboring counties. The clashes came even as legislators and speakers repeatedly vowed to try to avoid having the future of the two struggling industries become a "north vs. south" issue. Andrew Zezas, the chief executive of Real Estate Strategies Corp, drew boos for even discussing the possibility of alternative uses for the racetrack site, including industrial, office or residential options. "I'm not recommending anything," Zezas told the crowd. Bill Derrough, an investment banker representing the lenders who took control of the Xanadu project last month, expressed confidence in Xanadu's future and said that "we expect to name a new developer in the near future." Derrough added that any new developer would likely keep the same mix of entertainment and retail as originally envisioned in 2002, although there could be some adjustments "presumably including changes to the facade." Xanadu's multicolored facade has been the target of extensive criticism. For updates throughout the day, click here for our Meadowlands Matters blog This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:55 AM PDT Posted: Sep 10, 2010 12:40 PM More than a dozen trainers and horse owners at Evangeline Downs are suing the Louisiana Racing Commision. Don Stemmans has owned thousands of racing horses since the 1960s. He said, "I've never seen a racing commission, ever like this, do anything like this." Stemmans is one of many horse owners who have lost faith in the judgment of state veterinarians appointed by the Louisiana Racing Commission. Nicholas Bellard is representing more than a dozen horse owners and trainers in the lawsuit. "Over the last year and half or so they've been arbitrarily placing inordinately large number of horses on what is called the vet list, what's called the injured reserve-- they can't run," Bellard said. Every time a horse is placed on the vets lists, anyone from owners to trainers, jockeys and even groomers lose out on money. The dozens of horse owners and trainers say they are tired of spending money training their horses, only to have a state vet say their horse is unfit to compete. Stemmans owned 36 horses three months ago. He said, "I sold them all. I have maybe five or six horses left. I can't afford to have to wait, to have to get a horse ready to run, it costs money." Another horse owner, Lee Young, said "it costs me two races, both at 100,000." Young says the recent events at the track are forcing him to call it quits. He explained, "I got one of the best vets in the country that works on the horse and checks the horse before we even go and then we got a yo-yo here. I'm telling you this guy does not know which end of the horse he's looking at." Bellard says up to 240 horses at Evangeline Downs have been ineligible to race at a single time. He said, "personally I don't think it ever involved fixing racing, it involved get rid of a certain element of horse racing that they didn't didn't think was appropriate to horse racing in Louisiana." The Racing Commission failed to return any of KATC's phone calls.
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| NJ lawmakers consider horse racing's future Posted: 10 Sep 2010 01:41 PM PDT EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The long-running battle between northern and southern New Jersey over whether horse racing tracks should be allowed to install casino games was rekindled Friday during a legislative hearing at the Meadowlands that ended with no apparent consensus. Opponents believe allowing gaming in the north would hasten Atlantic City's demise. Proponents believe so-called "racinos" would help keep gambling dollars from leaving the state. "Our alternate gaming proposals have never been about hurting Atlantic City," said Tom Luchento, president of the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association, who testified at the hearing. "We have suggested that the casino owners have the chance to benefit from slots at the Meadowlands as operators and with the cross-promotional opportunities that will help their revival as a destination resort." Luchento said 176,000 acres of equine-related acreage in New Jersey and 13,000 racing-related jobs are threatened. New Jersey's tracks have been losing money for decades as casinos, the state Lottery and declining attendance all erode profits. Nick Amato, a former horse breeder and one-time president of the New Jersey Casino Association, said the problems facing casinos and the state's $1 billion racing industry must be solved separately. Democrats in the Legislature convened the three-part hearing on the future of gaming after Republican Gov. Chris Christie recommended allowing casinos to keep the $30 million subsidy they pay to racing in exchange for keeping slot machines out of the tracks. Casino operators vehemently oppose diluting gambling revenue by allowing the tracks to install slot or video poker machines even though racinos and casinos have opened in neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. Christie backed the recommendations of a special panel he appointed, calling for closing or selling the state-owned and financially struggling Meadowlands Racetrack, selling the underutilized Izod Center — which has lost its main tenants — the NBA's Nets and NHL's Devils, and giving state financial aid to finish the stalled Xanadu shopping-entertainment complex in the Meadowlands. The governor also proposed a state takeover of services in Atlantic City's casino district, citing the city government's long history of corruption, its decades-long failure to deal with blight and a steady decline in casino revenues and jobs amid growing competition. Amato said allowing gaming in the Meadowlands would be hurtful to casinos, a conclusion Christie's recommendations seemed to support. He also endorsed Christie's proposal to create a casino zone with state oversight, saying "dysfunction in Atlantic City" has dissuaded investors despite tax breaks not seen in rival Pennsylvania. Revenue reports out Friday show Atlantic City casinos' revenue was down 11.3 percent in August, the first full month of competition against table games in Pennsylvania. Slot parlors there have been siphoning off Atlantic City's revenue for nearly four years. A prior legislative hearing in Atlantic City focused on the casino industry's future. The final session later this month will be held at Monmouth Park, a thoroughbred track. Christie's proposals require legislative approval. "Collectively, we will figure this whole thing out," said Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. "It's not us against you or South against North," Senate President Steve Sweeney told the horsemen at Friday's hearing. "It's about how we help the whole state." State Sports and Exposition Authority CEO Dennis Robinson said despite stepped-up efforts to increase the number of off-track betting sites in the state over the past two years, no new betting parlors have opened. Robinson said four sites were identified as ripe for such parlors, but three were shot down by local officials and a fourth has hit construction snags. An off-track wagering in Woodbridge generates $90 million a year, he said. Sen. Ray Lesniak urged the sports authority to also consider expanding online wagering, which would include online poker and other casino-type games. Robinson said he's working with the horsemen's group to develop a long-term model for the sustainability of the racing industry and should have draft proposals soon. After Friday's hearing, Sen. Paul Sarlo, who chairs the Senate Budget panel, promised to try to find a source of funding to help the racing industry but didn't specify where the money would come from. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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