Maryland Racing

A new 15 member panel called "Keep It in Maryland" has been created to better market horse racing in Maryland. This committee came public today with a new positive image of the Maryland horse industry. Members of the committee include Lou Raffetto Jr. (president and COO of the Maryland Jockey Club, the Magna Entertainment Corp. Subsidiary that runs Pimlico and Laurel; Alan Foreman (chief counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association- a group that represents horse owners and trainers); and Cricket Goodall (executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association). I wonder why these people needed to create a new committee. Don't they already advocate for Maryland racing? Don't they already work together everyday to better Maryland racing? I'll need to do a little more digging in order to figure this one out, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with slot machines.

A Bloodhorse article today on this topic had a few other tidbits of info:

"William Rickman Jr. has stepped up work on a planned Thoroughbred track in Western Maryland called Little Orleans, according to Peter Szymanski, general manager of Ocean Downs, an Eastern shore harness track. Among Rickman's properties are Ocean Downs as well as Delaware Park, an out-of-state Thoroughbred venue that has video lottery terminals. It is widely believed Little Orleans won't be completed without a slots license".

"Maybe (Rickman) knows something we don't " Szymanski stated

Unfortunately, the future of Maryland racing may be determined next Tuesday (election day). I guess we will have to wait and see.