Suffolk Downs Operator, Horsemen Agree to Launch New Track in Massachusetts

[georgetkingiv]

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/224442/suffolk-operator-horsemen-agree-to-launch-new-track

[mabred]

Doesn't make sense Suffolk closes and sells the land.Now they want to
partner and build a new track when they said they couldn't make money it in Boston.So now they can make it in some town outside the city??.Btw the need the town to support it with a vote of the people.This is a dream and a back door plan to keep the AWD in their hands.

hope i am wrong

mabred

[lamboguy]

Doesn't make sense Suffolk closes and sells the land.Now they want to
partner and build a new track when they said they couldn't make money it in Boston.So now they can make it in some town outside the city??.Btw the need the town to support it with a vote of the people.This is a dream and a back door plan to keep the AWD in their hands.

hope i am wrong

mabred
they make big money on those fees. they aren't in the clear yet, Stronach wants Mass. and has a much better record than these bums, and Stronach is serious.

Belinda wants to make something out of racing unlike what most people think.

[Track Collector]

Any potential new track, if it is even going to happen, will take several years.

I recognize that having control of the simulcast rights is extremely important, but why can't someone (NEHBPA or the Stronach group) work with the Carneys to run a 15-30 day meet at Brockton in the interim? Seems the Carneys spent a lot of money in the past few years to get Brockton close to racing shape. Perhaps just to use it as a training track for their own horses until they decide to sell the fairgrounds for development? Brockton would seem like a better short-term plan now given that the Stronach group has basically ruled out the conversion of the older Raynham-Taunton dog track. And, as I recall, the Carney plan to bring back a 15-day meet at Brockton was scrapped because of an approximate $1.4M shortfall for expenses, which while a lot of money, could easily be covered by someone like the Stronach group in order to establish a racing presence in MA. While Suffolk is planning to run in 2018, I get the feeling that the MA Gaming Commission would be willing to give Brockton a sizeable cut of the allocated purse monies to run a meet.

I think one very important fact that folks overlook is that in the quest to attract new racing fans, one's chances are greatly superior to doing so in the more casual atmosphere of of a racing fair (where there might be multiple family interest activities) vs. just an adult choosing to go to a commercial racetrack for the first time. Kids can enjoy the rides and games, and dad and mom can take in the thrill of betting on a race or two. The more folks who do this, the better the chance of getting someone to come back again a second time. This IMO is a much more likely scenario of how new fans end up getting into the game.

[elhelmete]

Gosh, I dunno. I left New England in 1999 and the thought of moving back with no Suffolk, no Rockingham, is hard to be thrilled about. Was home for Thanksgiving a few years back and escaped up to Scarborough for a few hours...got my fix in.

Part of me is like, "you know what? Eff it. Stop using the defibrillator on New England thoroughbred racing. Let it die, someone write the book, and we'll all read about it to our grandkids."

Trying to revive Brockton as an option feeds that point of view. Brockton is...let me be kind...not a destination. It's attractiveness as a fair makes me roll my eyes. No room for a full-size track, or a turf course IIRC, so watching 2-turn 6.5f races go in 1:29 is what we'd be faced with. Nope.

Topsfield Fair used to have dog racing. There's lots of land up there but it's swampy and/or pricey. That'd be a better fair to attach to. SOme farms up on the North Shore too.

A new facility would be awesome, but I just can't see it working in an area where they could afford to build it and where there. Maybe along Route 24? 495? How funny if they could work something out with the Patriots in Foxboro, near the old raceway site?

[Thomas Roulston]

Maybe they will build the new track to the specifications of one of the tracks that I have posted here! :D

[soupman2]

This is a total pipe dream. It will never happen. Mass. passed the casino law in 2011. Six years later there still is no casino and won't be for at least another 2 years. You can use your imagination as to why. This is a totally left leaning state controlled by the (corrupt) Democrats. Wait till the wails from the PETA crowd starts. They ended dog racing with an election referendum in a landslide without spending much money. Just a few radio interviews. There is no land inside 495 that would be affordable or accessable. The Mass Pike is a mess already up to the Rt 84 exit.

The best chance of keeping horse racing in New England was Rockingham Park, but the shortsighted NH legislature refused to approve a casino for the site and racing was dead. The horsemen started this process several years earlier when they refused to race for the purses offered. Don't blame them really. But since the Rock just sat there for a few years just rotting away it was easy to kill it off.

[Afleet]

This is a total pipe dream. It will never happen. Mass. passed the casino law in 2011. Six years later there still is no casino and won't be for at least another 2 years. You can use your imagination as to why. This is a totally left leaning state controlled by the (corrupt) Democrats. Wait till the wails from the PETA crowd starts. They ended dog racing with an election referendum in a landslide without spending much money. Just a few radio interviews. There is no land inside 495 that would be affordable or accessable. The Mass Pike is a mess already up to the Rt 84 exit.

The best chance of keeping horse racing in New England was Rockingham Park, but the shortsighted NH legislature refused to approve a casino for the site and racing was dead. The horsemen started this process several years earlier when they refused to race for the purses offered. Don't blame them really. But since the Rock just sat there for a few years just rotting away it was easy to kill it off.

You would think New England is the last place a new raceteack is needed. Where are all the horse going to come from? I agree w/the opinin about corrupt democraps. Listening to stock investment experts they say to stay away from any investment from a state controlled by democraps. They said Hawaii is the most corrupt state in the union and all levels of government are controlled by democraps.

[Thomas Roulston]

Look at what happened next door in Vermont to the bid to resurrect thoroughbred racing at Green Mountain Race Track 25 years ago. Howard Dean quashed it because the would-be owners wanted to conduct "cruel" greyhound racing in the part of the year when thoroughbred racing was not being run.

[AstrosFan]

This is a total pipe dream. It will never happen.


100% agree. This is all b/s talk with NO action

[elhelmete]

You would think New England is the last place a new raceteack is needed. Where are all the horse going to come from?

With the right purse structure, the hope would be that many of the old NE horsemen who left for mid-Atlantic and Florida tracks years ago might return to join the horsemen who stuck it out in Mass.

I think it's too little, too late...even if the joint gets built.

[castaway01]

Not sure anyone noticed, but racetracks not attached to casinos aren't exactly a wise investment in red or blue states these days.

[Hambletonian]

They want to build the track with the same funding source that Brockton wanted to subsidize their proposed meet.

Nobody would ever propose to build a racetrack these days with their own $$$.