The Center for Economic Development and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has released a study on the feasibility of a 0 million non-profit thoroughbred racetrack in the Bay Stay. The racetrack would hold 75 days of live racing a year and could create nearly 1,000 jobs.
The 47-page report, released July 8, projected “significant” economic benefits that could revive the state’s racing and breeding industry. The New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association funded the report and is lobbying lawmakers to build support for the project.
Anthony Spadea, president of the association, declared, “We are extremely enthusiastic and very excited about the positive findings in the study, and are greatly encouraged by the support that is growing in the legislature to allow us to turn our dream of finding a long-term solution for racing and breeding in Massachusetts into reality.”
The study proposes a “Massachusetts Model” that would include a multiuse racetrack, grandstand, equine center and equine retirement farm. A hotel might also be in the mix. The $150 million price tag includes the cost of acquiring up to 600 acres near an interstate highway or state road. Several properties meet these requirements.
If 75 live race days happen the facility is expected to generate $66 million annually. If other events are factored in, including indoor and outdoor affairs and dressage, farmers markets and training, that number could be as high as $100 million.
Spadea said, “Support in the legislature is building strongly, and all of the horsemen who have been helping us along the way are as enthusiastic as we are. We are very appreciative of the many groups of horsemen who have given us their support and loyalty. We will keep striving and working as hard as possible to make this a reality for all of us, so we can all stay at home to train and race our horses and make a living.”
The owners of Suffolk Downs insist that live racing can’t be self-supporting without the ability to add slots. That was why it partnered with Caesars Entertainment and then the Mohegan Sun in 2014 when it competed for the Boston metro casino license. This year Suffolk Downs will host six racing days to keep its license current.
The Brockton Fairgrounds plans to offer 15 live racing days this year—for the first time in 15 years.
Although the fact that these racetracks will be holding such a minimum number of races this year might seem to foretell their eventual doom, others point out that it’s a start, and wouldn’t have happened at all without the money that Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, the state’s first racino, is pouring into thoroughbred racing.
The 2011 gaming expansion law mandates that a percentage of gaming revenue be earmarked for racing. It has so far created a $15 million fund.
When the other casinos authorized by the law open, the amount generated is expected to be about $18 million a year. The fund pays for purses, the cash prizes that are awarded to winning jockeys and their horse’s owners.
George Carney, owner of Brockton, hopes to eventually fund as much as 30 days of racing from the fund. If that works out well, he would consider building a new horse racetrack in Raynham, the site of a now defunct greyhound racing facility.
Commenting about the short racing season at Brockton and Suffolk Alexander M. Waldrop, president and chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association told the Boston Globe: “It keeps racing alive, even if its long-term viability remains in question.” He added, “Boston is a first-class sports town with a rich racing history and deserves a world-class racetrack.”
State Senator James B. Eldridge isn’t sympathetic to that point of view. He wants the benefits to be distributed to a wider range of beneficiaries in the state.
Paul D. Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a watchdog group, agrees. “The state has a lot of mouths to feed, and I’m sure there are more worthy causes for this kind of state revenue than to prop up the horse racing industry,” he said last week. “It doesn’t seem right.”
Eileen P. McAnney of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, adds, “It may be time to take another look at whether it makes sense to continue this funding.”
Lawmakers are looking at legislation that would give the Massachusetts Gaming Commission more discretion on how to disburse the fund. Currently 80 percent goes towards purses, with 16 percent to breeders.
Stephen Crosby, chairman of the commission, told the Boston Globe,
“The commission would like to exercise the judgment and leadership to get thoroughbred horse racing back on its feet.”
