Some in the Maryland horse racing industry say the racetrack owners could ask the state’s lawmakers for financial help running the tracks next year.
Wednesday’s story on the state’s racing industry says one solution is for Gov. Martin O’Malley to step in and place the tracks under state ownership. A short-term option, however, would be for the General Assembly to amend the slots revenue allotments and allow some of the money designated for track renovations to go to subsidizing operations.
This week, track owners tried requesting an anemic racing schedule for 2011 because they said they couldn’t afford to do more. The shortened schedule still included the lucrative Preakness Stakes.
Steuart Pittman, president of the Maryland Horse Council, suggested the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel and Pimlico tracks, “request they be allowed to use some of the racetrack renewal money as an operating subsidy to get them through 2011.”
The renewal allotment is a small percentage of the slots revenue reserved for improvements made to racetracks. But it can only be used as a matching fund for what the track ownership group (Penn National Gaming and MI Developments) puts in for renovations.
Penn spokesman Eric Shippers this week said the jockey club could work together with “representatives of both the Maryland horsemen and the state of Maryland” to have a full racing season “provided such operations provide a return on the considerable investment the owners have made.”
