Horse Racing Fights for a Massachusetts Future

After Suffolk Downs casino loss, breeders and farms fear loss of over 1,000 jobs

Eight days ago, the state Gaming Commission signed what many horse-racing enthusiasts called a death warrant for the industry in the state by awarding the Greater Boston casino license to Wynn Resorts in Everett – not Mohegan Sun’s plan at Suffolk Downs that was seen as the last hope for keeping the 79-year-old track alive.

But Thursday, the commission – which subsumed the state Racing Commission and continues to oversee tracks and simulcast parlors – vowed to do all it can to ensure some kind of future for horse racing in Massachusetts and the over 1,100 jobs it’s widely estimated to support.

"Our industry depends on a race track. Without a race track, there's no industry," said Lee Loebelenz of Lion Spring Farm in Dover, Mass., a 306-year-old farm that each summer typically is home to as many as 20 horses transported in to race at Suffolk Downs. Her connection to Suffolk, Loebelenz said, creates thousands of hours of work and business for the area.

"I have somebody who works with the horses, I have a blacksmith, I have a vet, I have riders," Loebelenz said. "We use equipment, we use mechanics, we use gasoline, we use a lot of wood."

George Brown of Briar Hill Farm in Rehoboth, home to 50 horses, agreed: "It’s really life and death to us because if they don't have racing, there's no value or need for Massachusetts-bred horses. As long as there’s racing, we’re fine, but without racing, we’d have to close down."

The casino law includes millions of dollars in new subsidies for the horse racing industry, including a 9 percent tax on revenues from the Plainville slots parlor that goes to fatten up purses for bettors at whatever tracks survive in Massachusetts and other funds to support horse breeders and track workers.

The so-called horse racing development fund will also receive 5 percent of the license fees paid by the casinos and Plainridge Park Casino slots parlor and 2.5 percent of the combined gross casino gaming revenue from the MGM Springfield casino, Wynn Resorts in Everett, and any casino licensed in the southeastern part of the state, if and when those open. Eighty percent of the development fund will go towards enhancing prizes for horse owners and bettors in hopes of attracting higher-caliber racing, according to the Gaming Commission.

It appears to be widely agreed that the industry’s best hope – and certainly its most lucrative – is squeezing as many more years of racing out of Suffolk Downs as possible. Suffolk chief operating officer Chip Tuttle has said it appears almost certain the track will close down this year, but Thursday had no comment on their plans. With 160 acres on two MBTA Blue Line stations and Route 1A, Suffolk is widely seen as a potential $1 billion-plus realty redevelopment project.

Brockton Fairgrounds owner George Carney has said he’s interested in offering thoroughbred racing there and is willing to invest money to bring the dilapidated track back into operating condition. Brockton last had live racing in 2001, and Northampton hosted fairground racing as recently as 2005. (Other tracks that have hosted racing in the last quarter-century include the Marshfield Fair, for the last time in 1991, and Great Barrington, which after fits and starts closed for good in 1998.)

"If Suffolk downs isn't going to race, we really need another alternative," Brown said.

State Gaming Commission chairman Stephen P. Crosby said in addition to talk of a revival of racing at Brockton or Northampton if Suffolk Downs does shut down, "you can create a new thoroughbred track, so there are plenty of options out there."

October 1 is the deadline under state law for Suffolk Downs, Plainridge Park, and anyone else looking to apply for horse-racing dates to apply to the Gaming Commission. That deadline, though, comes just 15 days after the bombshell decision that appears likely to doom Suffolk to closing for horse racing.

"It's a lot to ask people to come up with a game plan for something that's just happened," Loebelenz said.

Crosby and other commissioners stressed, however, they’re willing to accept any kind of "placeholder" application anyone wants to submit to meet the October 1 deadline, then give them weeks to flesh out proposals or develop partnerships and sponsorships to make racing economically viable in Massachusetts in 2015. "We’re trying to work our way around every impediment that might get in the way of a reasonable good faith effort to keep the door open to a possibility" of a bid for racing dates, Crosby said. "New ideas that might contribute to the discussion about salvaging thoroughbred racing in the state – we will be as flexible as we can."

Hours after losing the casino bid, Suffolk Downs’ Tuttle said the Gaming Commission’s promises to do all it could to save horse racing in the state sounded like no more than "empty posturing."

Crosby said he understands how sad and angry racing industry workers are. "It’s a totally difficult, challenging, depressing circumstance. I understand that, and hopefully, we are able to demonstrate that there are things we can do, and we're going to try to do them."

With videographer Abbas T. Sadek 

Contact Us