Supporters of horse racing in the Bay State are trying to revive the moribund industry by persuading the state to back a proposal to build what they hope will become a fulltime racetrack, using funds borrowed but backed by the state’s Race Horse Development Fund, which collects money from gaming taxes. Currently the fund stands at nearly million.
The New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association wants to built the facility in Essex County, where, one study by the University of Massachusetts suggests, 3,000 spectators a day would attend and create $99 million a year in economic activity. It would also, most importantly for the association, create almost 1,000 jobs.
Horseracing isn’t completely dead in the state. Suffolk Downs still runs six races annually, although mostly it just takes simulcast bets for races in other states. It is able to do that with $2.4 million from the Race Horse Development Fund, which allows it to offer purses.
Dr. John R. Mullen, associate director of the UMass Center for Economic Development, one of the authors of the study, told the Daily News of Newburyport, “Massachusetts is horse country and always has been,” adding, “Massachusetts can create a horse park unlike anything in the Northeast that would not only be highly successful, it would help preserve the nearly 30 percent of our state agricultural land dedicated to horses.”
The report also identified several possible locations that are on the market. One in Essex County would cost about $150 million to purchase and add the track, grandstand, stables etc.
The association proposes a facility that would have a racetrack and an equestrian center with indoor and outdoor seating, and which could host other horse related events and shows. There would also be a horse farm where retired horses could be put out to pasture.
The hope is to keep a venerable institution alive, and keep all of its younger members from going to other states.
Although the industry is in the midst of hard times, there are still over 1,200 working horse farms in the state, as well as 125 commercial equestrian centers. These centers hold competitions, breed and train horses and provide homes for retired thoroughbreds.
The idea has the support of some key players in the state legislature, including House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and Rep. Ann Margaret-Ferrante, whose district contains many of the aforementioned equestrian centers. DeLeo’s district includes Suffolk Downs.
Tarr commented last week, “People who breed and train horses or grow hay — and all the others who work in the industry — deserve a seat at the table,” he said.
George Brown, president of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeding Association, told the Daily News: “With all the money that casinos would be kicking in, they should be able to put up some decent purses for the races, which would attract people from all over the place to run there,” he said. “And I mean attracting good thoroughbred horses, not bums.”
Plainridge Park casino
Massachusetts’s Plainridge Park casino in Plainville earned $180 million during its first year of operation. That netted $88 million in taxes and other fees for the Bay State.
That’s about 12 percent lower than the state had originally projected. Monthly revenues at the racino are steady at between $11 and $13 million.
The state collects 49 percent of gross revenue, keeping 82 percent and setting aside 18 percent for the Race Horse Development Fund, which subsidizes the state’s horse racing industry.
MGM Springfield
Demolition at the future site of the $950 million MGM Springfield is nearing completion and the long process of pouring concrete and pushing the girders of the structure into the sky in the South End of the Bay State’s third largest city.
The project is rising on a 14.5-acre parcel in the downtown area that will create a promised 2,000 construction jobs and possibly 3,000 permanent positions.
Concrete trucks are working on the 3,400 space seven-level parking garage, which is expected to take nearly two years to complete.
The casino resort is looking at a late 2018 opening.
Wynn Boston Harbor
Suffolk Construction last week let a $1 billion bad package for various subcontracted services and supplies that will be needed for the $2.1 billion Wynn Boston Harbor, which is being built along the waterfront of the Mystic River in Everett, within site of Boston’s skyline.
The 33-acre site will include a casino, 600 hotel rooms, a spa, dining and retail shopping. The casino will have 3,242 slots, 168 gaming tables in its 150,000 square foot casino floor, plus a poker room.
Wynn Resorts calls the bid opportunities, “”among the highest ever issued for any private, union-built, single-phase development in the history of Massachusetts.” Wynn claims it is the largest single-phase private construction project in Bay State history.
Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Boston Harbor reiterated the company’s commitment to spending as much money “close to home” during the three-year construction phase and to emphasize the hiring and contracting of minorities, women and veterans. The project is expected to create 4,000 union jobs.
