The first rejection stung. The second was a disappointment but not devastating. The third, Tom Winebrener and the other owners of Rosecroft Raceway learned last week, was depressingly familiar and even a bit surreal.
When family members of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos decided Tuesday not to buy the ailing Prince George's horse-racing track after a long and promising courtship, the future of the 56-year-old racetrack was left in serious doubt for the third time in two years.
Horse owner Betsy Brown takes one of her racers out to train. The track's owners hope that slots will come to Rosecroft, raising prize money.
(Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)
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"We've had two broken engagements and we've been left at the altar once," said Winebrener, president of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners' Association, which owns the track. "We're starting to feel like the plain girl with the rich daddy, and the rich daddy is slots. If Mr. Slots is home, we have a lot of suitors. When Mr. Slots leaves, we're left in the dust."
The failure to sell the harness-racing track underscores the disconnect between the track's owners -- who say they want to see their sport thrive -- and their suitors, who see the Oxon Hill location, just across the Wilson Bridge from Virginia, as an ideal venue for slot-machine gambling.
Rosecroft's struggle is also emblematic of the larger debate in the Maryland General Assembly over legalizing slot-machine gambling. Proponents argue that slots will bolster attendance and revenue at the tracks, while opponents say the machines will merely enrich wealthy investors without doing much for horse racing.
Both sides have powerful advocates among elected state leaders, and while opponents, led by House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) have killed legislation for two years, slots proponents are optimistic that a bill will pass this year.
If a bill clears the House of Delegates, though, it's doubtful that it will include Rosecroft: Prince George's County delegates agreed last week that they would oppose any bill that expands gambling within the county.
Rosecroft "needs help, there's no question about it," said Del. Obie Patterson (D-Prince George's), a slots opponent whose district contains the track. "But I'm not sure slots is the solution. I'm not sure it [slots legislation] is really structured to help the horse-racing industry to begin with."
Rosecroft's owners say the debate boils down to a basic question about the track's survival. If a wealthy backer with political connections buys the venue and can successfully negotiate favorable conditions in slots legislation that would put the gambling machines at Rosecroft, prize money at the track would soar, they say. That's what owners had hoped for with the arrival of the Angelos family, who could deliver the clout of one of the state's most powerful attorneys and generous campaign donors.
"The bottom line here is we are not powerful," said Linda Winebrener, who, with her husband, Tom, owns Fox Den Breeding Farm in Carroll County. "We're in it for a way of life. I need a place to sell my [foals]."
Placing the gambling machines at Rosecroft is "a win-win," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who has led the effort to pass slots legislation. "If you're going to continue the standardbred operation in the state, you need a facility like Rosecroft, and it's a huge win for the area."
There was a time when Rosecroft enjoyed large attendance, drawing crowds from across Prince George's and beyond to witness the niche sport of harness racing -- a sort of modern equivalent of chariot races, with jockeys known as "drivers" trailing behind horses in carts.
Opened in 1949, the track became something of an institution which many longtime Prince George's residents say they remember fondly. But in the late 1970s, attendance began dropping off. The amount wagered on live races at Rosecroft has in four years plummeted 60 percent -- from $17.6 million in 2000 to $7.1 million in 2004, according to figures from the Maryland Racing Commission. Thoroughbred racing also has seen a decline in money wagered, but its drop has not been so precipitous: In 2000, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course pulled in $109.7 million. In 2004, the tracks drew $65 million -- a 40 percent decline.
Races are run on the Rosecroft track, which is five-eighths of a mile long, every Friday and Saturday night, but the main draw is the simulcast contests beamed in from across the country to 256 television monitors that dominate the grandstand's cavernous interior.
When the General Assembly took up the question of legalizing slots in 2003, Rosecroft's owners began shopping around. They found a potential buyer in Centaur Inc., an Indiana-based casino and track company, but the deal fell through when the Maryland Racing Commission failed to grant approval in time to meet a contractually set deadline. The same happened in 2004, when the racing commission blocked a sale to Northwind Racing LLC.
Last week, Angelos family members balked at the deal after the racing commission approved the sale and just as both parties were ready to hash out the final details. The night before, the county's delegates had agreed to oppose slots anywhere in Prince George's.
A bill approved by the Senate on Friday does not specifically include Rosecroft, but the track is widely considered attractive because of its proximity to the District and Virginia, which have no slot machines. The raceway is dominated by the candy-striped grandstand, which on the inside resembles a large gaming hall, with rows of tables and betting stations. A restaurant is arranged around the televised races, with small monitors stationed at each table.
The track, visible though large plate-glass windows, almost seems an afterthought.
