Racing at the crossroads

With slot machines again denied by voters, fate of Scarborough Downs unclear

SCARBOROUGH — Renee Robertson has had enough.

“We’re leaving the state because of Question 2,” she said on Saturday, as she watched one of her horses circle the track at Scarborough Downs.

Robertson and her husband, Dick, house and train 11 standardbred trotting horses at nearby Robertson Racing Stables. Brandishing that day’s racing program, she was quick to point out why they’re picking up stakes. Simply put, the stakes aren’t high enough.

“Look at this horse,” she said, pointing to one named Tough Enuff Hanover, starting from post position in the sixth. “He shows racing at Yonkers (N.Y.) going for $17,000. He shows racing at Pocono (Penn.) going for $24,000. The horse just raced here going for $4,000.

Just days after the failure latest proposal to bring slot machines to southern Maine, and days before Scarborough Downs argues for its 2012 license, horse owners like Robertson were doing the math and starting to look south for opportunity. Without gambling to support the Scarborough Downs operation, they said, the track is stuck in a slow death spiral, and it would likely bring the state’s entire harness racing industry along with it.

“If you were the owner of that horse, would you rather get 50 percent of $17,000, or $4,000?” she asks, rhetorically. “We’re definitely leaving. We have no choice. We’ve banged our heads and just scraped by for so long that we just can’t keep doing that. We have to go someplace where we can make money instead of just getting by. Down there, with the slot revenue, we can work half as hard as we do for twice as much money.”

The difference, says Robertson, is that the harness racing tracks in New York and Pennsylvania generate revenue, and thus purse money, from on-site slot machines, in addition to live wagering and simulcast off-track betting. On Nov. 8, by a 55 percent margin, voters denied Scarborough Downs its own set of slot machines.

The 2003 referendum that created the Hollywood Slots racino in Bangor also allowed for a similar facility in Southern Maine, pending local approval. But Scarborough voters said no in two subsequent votes, prompting a $120 million partnership with Ocean Properties Ltd. to move the Downs from its 500-acre site in Scarborough to Biddeford, where residents were waiting with open arms.

Following the statewide defeat of Question 2, Downs owner Sharon Terry has vowed to soldier on, refusing to speak to the press, but saying in a statement that she is “committed to bringing fans the best harness racing possible for the immediate future.

“The Downs is continuing to explore the best route to realize the plan for a fully-integrated racino here in southern Maine, which remains vital to the long-term stability of our industry,” continues the release.

In the meantime, Terry, who has owned the track since the death of her husband, Joe Ricci, in 2001, already has applied for 110 race dates in 2012 – down just one day from this season of live racing, which ends Dec. 18.

Henry Jackson, executive director of the Maine Harness Racing Commission, said those dates will be awarded Thursday in Augusta, when Scarborough Downs applies for its license renewal.

Whether or not Terry can pull off a full 2012 schedule remains to be seen. Jackson predicts commissioners will have “quite a few” questions for the Downs regarding its survival plan in an industry that has been in steady decline.

“To be perfectly honest with you,” said Jackson, “it will probably survive without additional slot machines, but at a very, very reduced level. If you take a look at what the cost to the owners and breeders are, they could not survive without the income from Bangor. There’s no question in my mind.”

According to Jackson, the state law that divvies up the coins plugged into Hollywood Slots machines lands in Scarborough through several channels. In 2010, he said, the Downs got $2.7 million in direct purse subsidies, in addition to another $227,000 in purse supplements funneled though a support fund for agricultural fairs. This is in addition to the “handle,” or money generated from betting at the track and through simulcast stations.

Scarborough Downs also got $1.45 million from a Fund to Encourage Racing at Maine’s Commercial Tracks. That money, Jackson said, is dedicated to facilities maintenance. Despite this, Stephen Cobbett, director of operations for the Downs, admits that the floor in the main grandstand has not been painted in the nine years he’s been at the track. There are no plans, he said, to reopen grandstand seating, closed since the ‘90s.

Perhaps more tellingly, the Downs this year canceled the Memorial Pace, named for Ricci. “We just didn’t have the money,” explains the Downs’ director of marketing, Susan Higgins.

When the Oxford casino – which did get the nod from voters last November, albeit by a slim margin – opens next year, Scarborough Downs will get 1 percent of its revenue to boost purses. Another 1 percent will be directed to standardbred breeders, with an addition 1 percent to owners, Jackson said.

The big question is, will that money come soon enough, and in a pile big enough, to keep Scarborough Downs and the racing industry, afloat?

The Robertson defection could be just the first domino to fall.

“If they go, I’m going,” said Scott Roberts, of Limerick, who owns two horses. Roberts, who works at Hussey Seating Company, said his family will remain in Maine, but his horses will live and race down south.

Roberts made $2,250 as his owner’s share of a win Saturday with Panpoint Accuracy and a place by Big John C. That may seem like a lot, but it spends quick.

Robert “Bubba” Larkin, of Scarborough, has been racing horses for 40 of the 61 years the Downs has been open. He owns 13 now, and spends $1,200 a week on their care, upkeep and training. That doesn’t count money paid to the driver. Larkin also won Saturday, collecting $2,000 when Ataboy Bubba crossed the line first.

Had his horse come in even as low as second or third, it could easily have put Larkin in the red for the week. Finish lower than fifth and the payout is zero.

“That’s the drag,” Higgins said. “You still have to pay out for feeding and shoeing and everything regardless. You still have to pay your driver, and your trainer.”

That was the case for Brenda Deojay, of Fayette. Active in the industry since 1985, Deojay now sits on the state breeders board. She has owned as many as four horses at one time. She has just a one-third ownership in a single horse, Dartanion, who finished fifth in the fifth race, Saturday, winning about $135.

“That probably paid for his shoes,” she joked.

“This is not for the faint of heart,” Deojay said, pointing out that winning days are often simply days to pay back debt. “By the time you get a 2-year-old to the track for the first time, you’ve probably got $10,000 to $15,000 invested in it.”

Once the horse is in racing form, she said, /////////////a single one cost about $1,000 a month. While purses are much more than when she started, Deojay said, even at Scarborough, purses have not kept pace with other costs.

Part of the problem, she said, is that even though the racing is “better than it’s ever been” with “a superior horse population,” the fan base has withered away.

“People used to come to the track because that’s what we did, it was a social event,” she said. “Now, instead of waiting for racing on Saturday, people go into a store and spent $30 or $40 on scratch tickets. People have gambled forever, but we have so many more choices now.”

Deojay blames the industry for “failing to market itself,” especially after the Lewiston race track closed in the early 1990s. Although younger people like Roberts have entered the field in recent years, most participants are closer in age to Deojay and Larkin.

“We’ve lost a generation and a half,” Deojay said.

“We do have to blame the industry for not continually promoting itself,” agreed Jackson. “They felt as though they could live on their laurels.”

Cobbett said Scarborough Downs drew as many as 5,000 fans on an average Saturday back in its heyday. This year, he said, the track drew only about 10,000 fans for the entire 111-day season, including 1,500 on the day of the Kentucky Derby.

Those in the industry say slot machines are vital to bringing fans back to the track.

“We have looked at other ways, but the model of using slot machines was first determined by a governor’s task force to be the correct model back in 1997,” said Downs attorney Edward MacColl. “The reason why it works, the reason why it’s logical, is that harness racing already depends on wagering for revenue. It always has.”

Deojay and her Dartanion co-owner, Earnest Jennison, of Bath, both say it would be great if a way could be found to bring families back to the track, but gambling makes the most sense because it complements what already happens there.

Without that revenue though, both say it’s only a matter of time before Scarborough Downs fails. Although they won’t head south – like Larkin, their roots here are too deep – both say they’ll probably not bother trying to survive on the fair circuit alone.

“I’ll just get out,” Jennison said. “I’ll give it a couple more years, then if Scarborough goes down, I’m done.

“In the last few years there’s been a big decline and it’s getting worse,” said Jennison. “They got to the OTB and bet on other places so nobody comes to the track anymore. This place used to be packed. Now, it can’t afford to do anything.”

“A commercial track is an absolute necessity for racing her in Maine,” Deojay said. “It cannot survive if Scarborough Downs does not make it. No question.”

Even Jackson agrees that that Scarborough Downs falls into the too-big-to-fail category. The fair circuit would be “greatly reduced” without Scarborough acting as a feeder system.

A recent Maine Farm Bureau study of the equine industry claims there are 35,000 horses in the state, using 226,022 acres of open space. Together, these horses generate total sales of $364 million in direct and indirect sales, support 5,700 jobs and generate tax revenue of $26.6 million.

According to those who race at Scarborough Downs, the failure of Question 2 places all of those jobs in jeopardy, in part because it increases the possibility that the facility could shut down.

Even Terry’s lawyer admits that much.

“Scarborough Down is not going to go out of business or shut down in the near term, but in the longer term I think it’s inevitable,” said MacColl. “If Scarborough Downs goes out of business, I think the entire harness racing industry would go out of business.”

And how close is that to happening. MacColl will only say this much. So far, this year, including all of its subsidies, Scarborough Downs “should break even.”