Today is the Currier and Ives for three year old filly trotters at The Meadows and HANA Handicappers have made their picks which may be found here. I don't dispute the fact the race is on the Grand Circuit, but this race makes a good case for the grading of stakes. This stakes should be no more than a grade three race.
Watch and Wager, LLC, a subsidiary of Webis, the company who operates the harness meet at Cal Expo is moving on with its second phase, that is getting an online account wagering license in the Golden State. It will be interesting to see if they get it for their current plan is to accept wagers on horse and greyhound racing. I can't say for sure, but my guess is due to the black eye dog racing has, it will not be allowed to take wagers on greyhound racing.
There was a horrible accident at Monticello Raceway on Monday which took out seven of the eight horses in the race which was declared a no-contest. This story contains a link of the race for those who insist on seeing the race (discretion is suggested). Drivers Jimmy Marohn Sr. and Michael Forte went directly to the hospital, later joined by Brad Clouser. Other drivers suffered injuries as well. Only three of the drivers escaped without any serious injury; two continued to drive the rest of the card while Jimmy Marohn Jr., took off his drives to go with his father to the hospital.
Amazingly, all the horses came out of the race with nothing more than scrapes and bruises.
While the race was declared no-contest, Halfpipe won the race in 2:11.2, most because he had to avoid horses who were loose all over the track.
Valley View Downs is dead. Long live Lawrence Downs Casino and Racing Resort. Endeka Entertainment has secured the funding needed thanks to a partnership with Penn National Gaming which will manage the facility with the option to purchase 1/3 of the company (at present a company can only own one casino within Pennsylvania. Now starts the process to get a casino license. It actually looks like this racino will be built. Like in Ohio, let's see how many seats the provide for racing. You know where the emphasis is going to be when a project is named 'Casino and Racing' instead of 'Racing and Casino'. When racing made the move to get slots at racetracks, they made a deal with the devil. Right now things may be going well but in the end, horsemen are going to regret it.
2 comments:
Pacingguy:
The need for another harness track in Pennsylvania has been questionable from the beginning. This one has been through several owners without a construction vehicle in sight. Maybe people with more business sense understand the new situation, but I don't. Why would Penn National want to build a track and casino near Youngstown, Ohio, and finance the nearby PA project as well?
Because PNG is splitting off into two segments, one the existing company which will operate casinos and another company which will be a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) which will own the actual facility and then lease it out to operators. Hence, they stand to make money on the PA facility regardless of how it performs.
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