Casino News Source:
http://www.philly.com
Harness racing's new wheels
Harrah's Chester Casino & Racetrack hopes to revive the sport in the Philadelphia area with the help of slot machines.
By Frank Fitzpatrick
Inquirer Staff Writer
The 1,000-foot-long structure along the Delaware River is already assuming some of its future glitz. With concrete and steel underpinning the captain's bridge dining room, the expansive atrium and cavernous slots parlor, Harrah's Chester Casino & Racetrack will be as sturdy as it is massive.
It had better be. The $430 million facility, whose 5/8-mile harness track is set to open in a little more than two months - on Sept. 10 - is being asked to hoist a couple of sizable ambitions on its young shoulders.
The first, backers of the 780,000-square-foot riverside "racino" believe, will be accomplished easily - bringing hundreds of needed jobs and new life to down-and-out Chester.
The second, restoring the near-moribund sport of harness racing in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, might be more difficult.
Harness racing was widely popular in the area in the 1960s and 1970s. Then, thousands flocked nightly to Brandywine Raceway, near Wilmington, to hear announcer Roy Shudt cry, "Heeeeere they come," or to Liberty Bell Park in Northeast Philadelphia to watch driver Herve Filion of Quebec set records that still stand.
But since the advent of legalized gambling in Atlantic City in 1978, the sport has all but disappeared from the area. Liberty Bell shut down in 1985, Brandywine four years later. Garden State Park, which briefly hosted harness racing in its dreary final days, closed for good in 2000.
"There's no question that we've got to get harness racing back into the consciousness of people," said Joe Lashinger, a partner in the Chester venture, and a onetime standardbred owner and Brandywine patron. "I think this area will have a lot easier time than places where there's no history of the sport. There are still a lot of old-timers around from those days, bettors and horse owners."
It might be easier to win back those fans with a racing facility that far exceeds what has become the industry standard. Harrah's will be the first harness-only track built in the United States since Plainridge Racecourse opened in Massachusetts in 1999. And, because it eventually will share the space with 2,750 slot machines, it likely will be much more elegant and user-friendly than the average facility.
"We find that when we get people down here and they see all this, they're amazed," said Lashinger, a Darby native and former state representative. "They were expecting a Quonset hut. I think we'll get a lot of new customers by going in this direction [constructing a luxury facility from scratch] as opposed to what others have done in the past, putting up sheet-metal buildings and having seasonal racing only."
Lashinger understands the sport might not have gotten another chance had not Pennsylvania legalized slot machines at racetracks in 2004.
He and his partners, George Miller and Kevin Flynn, quickly acquired one of the coveted racing licenses and made plans for the combination slots parlor-track on the site of the old Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock plant in Chester.
Numerous administrative disputes have delayed the debut of slots, causing other racetrack operators to rein in conversion projects. Work at the Chester facility, meanwhile, has forged ahead. That's because when the bureaucratic delays became apparent, Lashinger decided he needed to find a wealthy partner.
In 2004, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. bought 50 percent of the shares in Lashinger's company, Chester Downs & Marina LLC. In exchange for fully financing the project, the Nevada-based gambling giant will manage the project's construction and operate the track.
"I've been sitting here a couple of years wondering why the [other proposed Pennsylvania racinos] have been dragging their feet," Lashinger said. "Now they look a lot smarter.
"But we're the only ones doing a new building. We didn't do a temporary. We wanted to get into the market early. So if we're right [and the slots problems get resolved quickly], we're going to have a real big advantage. If we're wrong, we needed deep pockets like Harrah's to stay the course."
It looks as if Harrah's might have won its wager. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board resolved a nine-month standoff regarding slot-machine distributors, so the facility's slots could be operating by January.
Regardless, harness racing will begin there in September.
Lashinger said the track will host 150 days of racing. While lights are being installed, those sessions initially will take place during the day until a schedule can be worked out with Pocono Downs, another of the state's three harness tracks, just two hours away in Wilkes-Barre.
"We're going to begin with 10-race cards," said Mike Tanner, Harrah's director of racing operations, "but we may get up to 12 pretty quick."
Finding enough horses to ship in to fill those fields won't be a problem, Lashinger said.
Some of the top standardbred-breeding and training facilities in the nation are close by, including Hanover Shoe Farms in South Hanover, Pa.; Fashion Farms in New Hope; and Winback Farm in Middletown, Del.
"We have the greatest selection of harness horses in the country within 50 miles," Lashinger said. "All the big boys are here. Pennsylvania now has a breeders fund for the first time. And because horses won't be boarding here, we've seen a lot of interest in local agricultural land as training centers."
Without slots, the average daily purse for the 45 days of racing scheduled this fall likely will be about $70,000, Lashinger said. That figure, he said, likely will jump to between $150,000 and $200,000 soon after slots are installed.
By way of comparison, Dover Downs, buoyed by the legalization of slots in Delaware, has average daily purses of $140,000 to $150,000. At Freehold Raceway, in Central Jersey, the figure is approximately $55,000.
And there was an $86 million deal in which Atlantic City casinos bailed out New Jersey's horse-racing industry to prevent the tracks from installing video slot machines.
The casinos subsidize the purses at Monmouth Park, Freehold Raceway and the Meadowlands over four years. In return, the racetracks will delay their efforts to install video slot machines at least until 2009.
Work on the track's year-round surface, a portion of which rests on a bridge built atop Sun's old boat slips - still filled with 40 to 50 feet of water - is nearly complete.
"The company had hoped that it would be able to fill the slips in," Tanner said. "But we weren't allowed to alter the shoreline. So it was determined to essentially build a bridge that would support the first turn."
Just south of the track stands the 131-stable paddock building, which includes a second-floor lounge from where horsemen and officials can watch the races.
The rest of the racing portion of the "racino" - a simulcast lounge, dining room and grandstands - will be done on time, Tanner said.
There will be grandstand seating for about 1,500 spectators who will be virtually on top of the front stretch. The glass-enclosed upscale restaurant on the second floor is set to open in October. Diners will have a striking, unobstructed view of the Delaware.
"You sit there and watch these huge ocean liners go up and down what is a pretty active channel," Tanner said. "The airport's not far away. The bridges are in view. And Jersey is so close you can touch it. It's kind of arresting."
|
|
