Maryland track granted permission to close, continue simulcasts

Rosecroft Raceway was granted permission by the Maryland Racing Commission on Tuesday to close for live racing for up to two years, while still allowing it to simulcast races. The commission declared the track to be in an emergency situation, thus honoring its request to continue simulcasting, and the site will still host six days of sire stakes and Maryland fund races in November and December as those purses are already funded.

According to a story in Wednesday’s Baltimore Sun, Rosecroft will save $500,000 through the end of the year by not paying purses, and also save another $1 million through salary cuts and layoffs. Thomas Cooke, president of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Association, told the Sun the track should be in the black by “a couple hundred thousand” this year. Parent company Cloverleaf Enterprises also has a yearly $5.9 million obligation to the Thoroughbred industry as part of a 15-year cross-breed agreement signed two years ago, as well as a $7.2 million mortgage on the track.

"Economically, it's not feasible to have the type of purses necessary to run," Rosecroft CEO Ted Snell told the Sun. "Simulcasting (revenue) will allow us to meet our debts and pay our bills."

Earlier this year a bill was passed in the state House that would create a task force to study the idea of racing Thoroughbreds at Rosecroft, which earlier was not designated as a possible future site for the addition of slot machines.

"Anything we can do to bring harness racing back sooner, I'm for," Cooke was quoted as saying. “The track would have to be redesigned, but the Meadowlands handles both Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds on the same track. If someone says we could have thoroughbred racing at Rosecroft by next summer and the harness races could be back in the fall--but this is just the first step. It would take a lot of cooperation."

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