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As a kid Brian Roland remembers the thrill of traveling to the Brandywine Raceway in north Wilmington, Del., with his father, a standardbred trainer.
"There would be 15,000 people on a Saturday night," recalled Roland, a resident of Jennersville. "They had terrific horses, large purses. It was a fun place to be. Then it all vanished."
Roland is betting that the good times are back. Chester Casino and Racetrack launched a new era in harness racing in the Delaware Valley Sunday afternoon. Located on 64 acres of the long abandoned Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock facility, the track offers sparkling views of ships and tankers passing by on the Delaware River.It is the first racetrack to open in Pennsylvania since Philadelphia Park in 1974.
But Chester’s Harrah’s is much more than harness racing. The world’s largest casino company is building a posh $430 million (including a $50 million licensing fee) entertainment complex that will house 2,750 slot machines when fully operational in January. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has said that conditional slots licenses will be awarded to racetracks at the end of September.
Harness racing will be staged Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays through Dec. 18 during its inaugural 45-day meet. Mostly a nighttime sport, the Chester harness track will operate during the afternoon, so that the facility can eventually cater to slot players in the evenings. The track’s director of racing operations Mike Tanner pegged daily purses at $70,000 this fall. There will also be simulcasts from the top thoroughbred and harness tracks across the country.
In 2007 the track will host 75-100 days of live racing with races slated to run from late spring through October. Horsemen are salivating as they anticipate purses will soar to upwards of $200,000 as the slots money begins to pour in.Tanner expects Chester’s purses to rival -- if not outpace -- the Meadowlands (N.J.), the sport’s most lucrative track.
These days Roland manages Alsabah Farm in Jennersville, where he trains 10 standardbred horses. After the region’s harness tracks closed, horsemen were forced to drive to tracks in the Poconos or southern Maryland.
"The older you get, the long nights are harder on you," admitted Roland, 46. "Now it takes me about 40 minutes to drive to Chester. When I was there for qualifying races last week Harrah’s people were all first-class. Horsemen are very excited about this new venture."
In harness racing, horses race in a specified gait while pulling two-wheeled carts called sulkies. Standardbred horses have proportionally shorter legs than thoroughbreds, longer bodies and possess a more placid disposition. In a sport that involves considerable strategy, Harrah’s Chester 5/8-mile track will demand early speed for horses to be successful.
The track’s designers worked around challenges left behind by the massive shipbuilding operations. The first turn of the track rests on a newly built $12 million bridge--freeway style overpass--that sits atop the former wet docks on the river where work was completed on ships after they were launched.
An all weather dust-stone track is so close to the water’s edge, the racers could easily toss their whips into the river. At the southern entrance horses are moved by van to a sprawling, pristine 131-stable paddock building that also includes a second-floor drivers’ lounge and outdoor deck where horsemen can watch the races.
Trainer Sam Beegle, who operates a training center near New Holland, said having a harness track in his "backyard" has been a long time coming. The sport disappeared in the Delaware Valley when Liberty Bell, Brandywine and Garden State Park were shuttered over the past 20 years.
"A lot of owners here dropped out after those tracks closed," said Beegle, a trainer for 36 years. "With the projected increases in purses, you’ll see a big resurgence as more and more Pennsylvania owners get involved in the sport."
Some of the premier standardbred farms in the nation are nearby, including Winbak in Middletown, Del., and Hanover Shoe Farm near Gettysburg. Hanover has been a world-class breeding establishment for more than eight decades. CEO Jim Simpson said that the Pennsylvania Breeders Fund -- that pays bonuses for horses bred in-state -- should rocket to $10 million annually.
"This is a pivotal point," Simpson explained. "Now it will make economic sense to hang on to the farms for future generations, rather than selling off to developers. The slots windfall will have a profound effect on breeding and racing for both the thoroughbred and standardbred industries." |
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