Head of Racing In Md. Is Fired
Dragone to Leave After Preakness

By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Maryland Jockey Club President Chris Dragone, who was brought in last November by the ownership of Pimlico and Laurel Park to take over for his fired predecessor, Lou Raffetto, will be replaced after the Preakness Stakes.

Magna Entertainment Chairman Frank Stronach confirmed Dragone's firing yesterday as well as the hiring of Tom Chuckas, who served for 11 years as chief executive of Cloverleaf Enterprises, a horsemen-controlled nonprofit group that operates the struggling Rosecroft Raceway harness track in Fort Washington.

Chuckas accepted a severance deal from Cloverleaf on Feb. 29 and has been working as an adviser to Stronach since May 1.

"Dragone, he was a nice fella, but it might have been maybe too much for him," said Stronach, reached yesterday in Moscow. "The other fella [Chuckas] had more experience. We have in mind he will play a greater role. It happened he was available."

Dragone declined to comment on the decision. The Maryland Jockey Club suffered a disastrous winter at Laurel Park in his only full meet as president as total wagering fell 24.7 percent, from $291.7 million last year to $219.8 million. After the 59-day meet ended April 13, Dragone said the tracks would dedicate $200,000 toward marketing its off-track betting sites and getting greater amounts of racing information to bettors.

"Right now, I'm president of the Maryland Jockey Club, and my focus is 100 percent on the Preakness," Dragone said yesterday. "That's my position. I am not going to have this event hijacked by a story that isn't focused on this weekend. Nothing was planned to be announced until after the Preakness."

The decision to fire Dragone is one in a lengthy list of management shakeups at Ontario-based Magna Entertainment, which lost $46.5 million in the first quarter of this year and $306.3 million the past three years. The company has had five chief executives since 2000, with Stronach serving as interim CEO three times.

While working at Rosecroft, Chuckas helped forge an important revenue-sharing agreement with the Maryland Jockey Club in the late 1990s, and also was a key principal in brokering a 15-year "memorandum of understanding" between the two sides in April 2006 that paved the way for new agreements on cross-breed simulcasting of in- and out-of-state races at Laurel, Pimlico, Rosecroft and off-track betting sites.

The agreement ended acrimony between thoroughbred and harness interests as both were attempting to present a unified front to legislators in Annapolis in their quest to legalize slot machines at local tracks.

Voters will decide by referendum in November whether to approve a constitutional amendment to allow slots to be legalized, with approximately $90 million earmarked for race purses that would help stabilize the industry.

"He's a cool customer," Maryland Racing Commission Chairman John Franzone said of Chuckas. "He's not the guy who jumps up and down, who yells and screams. What really kind of took this last 15-year deal over the top was Raffetto made some compromises and Chuckas made some compromises with [former commission chairman John] McDaniel leading the charge."

"We've all known Tom for a long time," said Richard Hoffberger, president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. "He comes with a fair amount of experience in the racing industry.

"Not to take anything away from [Dragone], but we always knew [he was] working at an unfortunate disadvantage. Tom's seen what's going on here. He's seen what's going on in Annapolis. He knows the players. Someone from the outside, unless they bring a tremendous amount of other ability, is at a disadvantage."

Chuckas also has the support of UFCW Local 27, the union that bargains for track workers.

"He is as fair as anybody I have ever done business with in Maryland racing, and that's with 34 years of experience," said Harry Manley, service director of the union.

Dragone was hired by Stronach to replace Raffetto, a veteran executive who was extremely popular with both management and horsemen. Raffetto was fired by Stronach soon after Magna bought out the remaining interest in Laurel and Pimlico from the family of Joe De Francis.

At the time of Raffetto's firing, Franzone said: "You talk about bad decisions in politics and industry; this is like the Bay of Pigs. That's how bad it is."

Before moving to Maryland, Dragone had worked as an executive at minor racetracks such as Portland Meadows in Oregon and the now-closed Great Lakes Downs in Michigan. The highlight of his brief tenure in Maryland was the restoration of the historic Grade I Pimlico Special for older horses to the stakes schedule, which will be run Friday with a reduced purse of $250,000 and sponsorship backing from the Maryland Lottery.

Hoffberger said Dragone deserves credit "for coming in at a difficult time and working on some tough projects. He does have 100,000 people coming into his facility on Saturday," he said.