Quote:
Originally Posted by foregoforever
From its opening in 1997 through 2005, Colonial was managed and operated by the Maryland Jockey Club, the owners of Laurel and Pimlico.
The MJC, led by De Francis, had been one of the original applicants for a VA license, and wanted to build a track in Fairfax County (northern VA), and had offered to merge the new track into the Maryland circuit by shutting down Laurel during the new track's meet.
The merged circuit made a lot of sense, but voters in Fairfax shot down the new track in a referendum. So De Francis had a good plan but nowhere to build a track. Meanwhile, the Colonial Downs group had the land and was ready to build in New Kent, but getting horses to run there was going to be a problem if they ran at the same time as Laurel.
So they came up with this management deal, and the MJC did shut down Laurel during the Colonial meet. This led to the "encouragement" that Ruffian1 describes.
The management deal ended in 2005, and Colonial took over the management of the track.
|
Ahhh. Ok. I was not privy to those details. That makes sense.
One thing though. Why would MD horsemen simply not relocate horses they intended on racing at CNL, to be stabled at CNL? Why go through the hassle of trying to ship 160 miles though miserable DC traffic...In weather that is very likely to be hot and humid?
After all, the condition books are issued well in advance. The trainers have a pretty good grasp on what the Secretary is going to write on a given day.
