Gural closes on Vernon

Vernon Downs finally changed hands Monday, opening the way for racing to resume by early summer. "It's done. We now own Vernon Downs," said Standardbred owner Jeff Gural, who also shares ownership of Tioga Downs in Binghamton, N.Y., which will open on June 9.

Gural and his partner Nevada Gold will operate the track as American Racing & Entertainment. They plan to resume racing later this summer. The last time racing was held at Vernon Downs was in July 2004. American Racing & Entertainment now needs to get licenses from the state Racing and Wagering Board and the Lottery Division.

Monday's transfer means that virtually all of the track's creditors will be paid shortly out of about $6 million American Racing had to pay to win control of the track.

"We're going to start cutting checks as early as tomorrow," Lee Woodard, bankruptcy lawyer for the track's former parent company, Mid-State Raceway, told the Syracuse Post-Standard Monday afternoon.

Gural's group will still owe Vestin Mortgage about $24.5 million and Las Vegas investor Shawn Scott about $3 million. Those debts have to be paid within a year. Scott could get as much as $2.3 million more depending on casino revenue. Gural told the Post-Standard that state officials require him to immediately pay off Raceway Ventures, a group that included a former felon who was linked to the Philadelphia mob in a New Jersey crime commission report. That tab came to about $2 million, Gural said.

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