Same Old Story for Maryland Tracks: No Slots, No Action

By George Solomon
Sunday, August 26, 2007

Ryan Fogelsonger, a Springbrook High grad, sat outside the jockey's room at Laurel on Wednesday and talked about his trade. "I ride these amazing animals and try to get them to go as fast as they can. There's more to it than just going around in a circle. It's a job so exciting I leave here every day with a rush. What an honor to do this for a living."

Contrast the enthusiasm of the 26-year-old Fogelsonger, who grew up in Silver Spring, with the dire forecasts for horse racing in Maryland and the gloom-and-doom pronouncements that seem to come monthly from Magna Entertainment, the Ontario-based racetrack company that owns Laurel and Pimlico.

"We are extremely disappointed with the second-quarter results," declared Frank Stronach, Magna's chairman, on second-quarter reports that showed that the company had lost more than $23.4 million even though the two Maryland tracks combined for a net profit of $4.6 million for the period.

"Immediate and drastic action is required," Stronach said only weeks after the Maryland Jockey Club, which runs the two area tracks for Magna, announced it was eliminating 11 stakes races at Laurel this fall, reducing purses of three remaining stakes, as well as other purse reductions. And possibly, reductions in the number of days the tracks will operate.

The uncertain future of live horse racing as a major sport in Maryland appears to coincide with the additional opportunities to gamble (i.e., state lotteries, casinos, Internet options), as well as prosperous times at tracks in West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania that offer slot machines and simulcast racing. (Slot machines seem to draw fans to racetracks to bet both the horses and slots, except for dummies like me who can't multi-task).

A week ago Thursday, I was among 25,000 fans at Saratoga enjoying a day at the races (no slots needed there) -- a six-week throwback to a bygone era when horse racing was one of the major sports with baseball, football and boxing. The racing at Saratoga is superb, as is the ambience, rivaled only by Del Mar outside San Diego and Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

"I've been in the business for 35 years and still get a thrill when I go to Saratoga," said Louis J. Raffetto Jr., the president and chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club. "Nothing will make us Saratoga, but I'd like to improve our product."

How?

"We need cash [the addition of slot machines at the two Maryland tracks] to increase our purses to have about 2,400 horses available to us," Raffetto said. "Our Pimlico meeting in the spring should be short, like Saratoga. We could run four, five days a week the rest of the year at Laurel, with large fields [at least nine horses per race] and put on quality racing."

I sat in a box seat at Laurel on Wednesday next to Hamilton A. Smith, a veteran trainer who had a horse, Spotted Silver, finish second in the second race.

We were the only two people in the 224-seat area. And the rest of the 15,185-seat facility was not brimming with fans.

"It's depressing," Smith said, surveying the scene. "I have to listen to my owners; if they want me to run for bigger purses, I have to go to race at tracks in other states. I prefer to stay here. But horse owners and racetracks have to make money.''

"If we don't get a bill [to legalize slot machines] by April, I wouldn't blame the trainers for moving on," Raffetto said.

Nearly 70 years ago, Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral in a match race for the ages so elegantly chronicled by Washington writer Laura Hillenbrand in a book and later a movie. It was among the classic sports events of the century. And it took place at Pimlico, which is in Baltimore, in the state of Maryland. The game deserves to survive here, if lawmakers and Magna officials need reminding.

Redskins' Line Seems Straight

The Redskins obtaining left guard Pete Kendall, 34, from the New York Jets makes sense. Derrick Dockery's departure in the offseason was not adequately addressed, nor was the training camp injury to left tackle Chris Samuels. The replacements -- tackle Stephon Heyer and guard Mike Pucillo -- were risks, at best, to start preseason games. While you can't hold either player primarily responsible for Jason Campbell's injury last Saturday, I'm surprised coaches Joe Gibbs and Joe Bugel didn't address the situation earlier. Eight sacks in two preseason games? Not great.

Meanwhile, the team cut middle linebacker Lemar Marshall, who started 15 games last season, and brought in veteran Randall Godfrey. Marshall played most of five seasons with the Redskins, enjoying his best year in 2005. I liked him. Leave it to insightful veteran cornerback Fred Smoot to summarize the week: "People come, people go."

� Those fans who still haven't forgiven Orioles owner Peter Angelos for trying to keep Major League Baseball from returning to Washington must have had a laugh at the Orioles losing to the Texas Rangers, 30-3, on Wednesday. It's only been 110 years since a big league baseball team scored 30 runs in a single game.

Personally, there was sympathy here for Manager Dave Trembley, whose contract extension (through 2008) celebration was ruined by the first-game slaughter and a 9-7 nightcap defeat.

The Rangers scoring 16 runs in the final two innings prompted me to think about how fictional minor league catcher Crash Davis of "Bull Durham" fame would have handled the situation. "Every pitch in their ear," Crash would have told his pitcher, Nuke LaLoosh, I bet.

Meanwhile, Washington's own Nuke -- Nook Logan -- had five hits Tuesday in Washington's 11-6 victory over Houston. Five hits. Nook?

� The gritty (16-18) Mystics deserve a nod. After losing their first eight games and their coach, the Mystics nearly made the WNBA playoffs. But Monique Currie's three-pointer with 0.1 of a second left to beat Connecticut, 76-74, last Sunday went for naught when New York defeated Chicago later in the day. Still, "it was the biggest shot of my life," Currie said in a telephone interview. "I'd never, ever made a game-winning basket." Currie leaves town soon to play in Russia, where, she said, "I'd better take some sweats." Currie's boss, Mystics managing partner Sheila Johnson, observed: "I'm so proud of these girls. It was remarkable how they turned themselves around."

� 33-year-old D.C. United star Jaime Moreno deserves an additional nod. Moreno's goal the other night off a penalty kick against New York was the 109th of his MLS career, most in league history.

� The excitement of the start of college and high school football seasons is a welcome diversion from the depressing and relentless news surrounding Michael Vick's guilty plea to federal dogfighting charges. I wonder how high school coaches can explain to their players how someone at the top of his profession can do something so heinous and foolish?

Have a comment or question? Reach me attalkback@washpost.com.