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Racing in Massachusetts May Be Nearing Return

A group hoping to revitalize horse racing in Massachusetts is in the process of finalizing an application to the Massachusetts Racing Commission for a license to operate a track in the town of Hardwick. The project, which has been named Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center, is far enough along that there could be a limited amount of racing offered at the new track as soon as next year.

Hardwick is located in the central part of the state, about 75 miles west of Boston. The track will be located at the site of the Great Meadowbrook Farm, a 360-acre spread which began as a dairy farm and has been used as an equestrian training center.

“We have to apply for a license by Sept. 30,” said Lou Raffetto, the former vice president of racing at Suffolk Downs and an advisor to the Commonwealth Group. “Quite honestly, as crazy as it sounds, I am hopeful we can race next year. The plan for next year would be to run two festival-style weekends in the fall, if we can pull everything together. This is very real.”

Suffolk Downs' days were numbered when track owners lost out on their bid to get a casino license. Because it needed to hold some form of live racing in order to maintain a simulcasting license, the track held short meets every year from 2015 to 2019. But with plans to develop the property ready to come to fruition, racing was halted after the 2019 mini-meet.

There have since been a number of efforts to find a new location to open a new racetrack in the state, but all were met with what were insurmountable road blocks. A proposed racetrack to be built in the town of Sturbridge was shot down by that town's voters. Plans to rebuild and re-open the Great Barrington Fair also couldn't get off the ground.

According to Raffetto, the Hardwick proposal will not have to go before the town's voters and that all that will be needed is a permit that can be issued by the town.

“We're very confident that is going to happen,” he said. “The principals and the architects had an excellent meeting with the planning board and the selectmen on Tuesday. What was really wonderful about it was that everybody was really supportive. In other towns in the past you'd go in there on the defensive. These people were asking the right questions and are very supportive of the program.”

The efforts to revitalize racing in Massachusetts got a much-needed shot in the arm when sports betting was legalized in the state earlier this year. Under the law, anyone holding a racing permit will be allowed to have a sports betting license. Commonwealth Equine, whose principals are former Suffolk owner Richard Fields and the husband-wife team of Armand and Robin Kalaidjian, do not plan to have on-site sports betting at the proposed track but can offer it online. The belief is that enough money can be made from sports betting to support a a new racetrack.

Another factor working in Commonwealth's favor is that there is an abundance of purse money sitting in abeyance waiting to be doled out. Even though it has been dormant for more than three years, the Thoroughbred industry in the state is still entitled to a share of the slot machine revenue generated at the Plainridge harness track. That pool has grown to about $22 million.

Raffetto estimated the purses will be about $750,000 a day and that maiden special weight races will for $75,000. With Kentucky Downs serving as a model, there will be turf racing only and it will be conducted over a track that will be one-mile in circumference with movable rails.

The tentative plan would be for the track to run four days in 2023, twice over the weekend of Sept. 9 and 10 and twice more over the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The long-term goal will be to extend the meet, possibly to eight days a year, with a focus on fall dates. Raffetto said the plan is to build a small grandstand that can accommodate about 2,000 people and that an area on the apron will be cleared for additional fans.

“Our goal is to get 4,000, 5,000 people to come out and experience this,” Raffetto said. “I think that's realistic. We'll try to have some fun and give horsemen the opportunity to make some money. I think the horsemen will be very supportive of this.”

Plans for the facility extend beyond a race meet.

“When it comes to the horse, there will be a little bit of everything, racing, breeding and retirement” Raffetto said. “There will be areas dedicated to horse retirement. We're going to look into bringing in some mares and buying or leasing a stallion.”

With Suffolk's demise, the breeding industry in the state has all but disappeared. According to The Jockey Club, only two mares were bred in Massachusetts in 2021.

Other plans include opening a high-end restaurant at the facility and well as a bed-and-breakfast.

Raffetto said a name for the new track has not yet been chosen.

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With Legalization of Sports Wagering, Renewed Hope That Racing Will Return to Massachusetts

A compromise agreement on a bill authorizing sports betting in Massachusetts was reached Monday, which could be the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to horse racing returning to the Bay State. Behind the scenes, a group of investors has been working to open a new track in the state ever since Suffolk Downs closed its doors in 2019, but understood that their plans would not be practical without there being a source of revenue beyond what can be made off of selling bets. With sports betting about to become a reality in the state and with the bill granting sports betting licenses to anyone operating a racetrack, the group is prepared to move forward and plans to apply to the Massachusetts Racing Commission for a racing license some time this fall.

“When it comes to the project, sports betting has been the catalyst all along because there has to be some sort or of revenue source,” said Lou Raffetto, the former vice president of racing at Suffolk Downs who is advising the group, which calls itself Commonwealth Racing. “We all understand it's not going to come from just racing itself. They are very serious about this and the intent will be that by October we need to apply for a racing license.”

Suffolk Downs' days were numbered in 2014 when the track lost out on a bid to get a casino license. It remained open over the next five years, running short meets that were a requirement to retain its simulcast license. In 2017, the property was sold to HYM Investment Group, which is in the process of converting the land into a mixed-use neighborhood that will include 10,000 housing units.

Without any realistic hope that a Massachusetts Thoroughbred track could cash in on a casino, the sport appeared to be dead in the state, where racing dates back to 1935 when Suffolk first ran. But the principals behind Commonwealth Racing, Armand Janjigian, his wife Robin, and former Suffolk Downs owner Richard Fields, believed they could make this work. While having a sports betting license may not be as a lucrative as operating a casino, it could prove to be enough to make operating a track in the state feasible.

Raffetto said the investors are well beyond the kicking-the-tires stage.

“I've been working for them for well over a year and this is nothing new,” he said. “If you had any idea how much money they have already spent on architects and engineers you'd shake your head and you'd see that they are very serious. They wouldn't be going down this road if they didn't think it was a good business decision. They understand there will be a lot of competition in the sports betting market but they've already spent a lot of money. That's how I know this isn't pie in the sky. They are a lot of smarter than I am and they know what they are doling when it comes to a running a business.”

Their task has been made easier by the fact that the state is holding on to about $22 million that is earmarked for Thoroughbred purses, meaning track owners, at least initially, may not have to contribute much to the purse account. Even though there has not been Thoroughbred racing in the state for more than three years, the industry still receives a cut from slot revenues from Plainridge Park, a Standardbred track. The money keeps piling up.

“The money is there to at least get things going,” Raffetto said. “I am imagining a meet where purses will be similar to what we had at Suffolk toward the end for the festivals. I think we could easily be giving out a half-million dollars each racing day.”

Massachusetts has not had Thoroughbred racing for more than three years | Horsephotos

Raffetto said the group has yet to decide where to build a track, but said two locations are under consideration, both in the western part of the state. Finding a municipality that will allow a racetrack to be built within its borders has been an issue. Commonwealth Racing thought it had found its home when putting forth a proposal to build a track in Sturbridge. Zoning changes were needed to approve an agriculture and zoning overlay district to move the project forward, but, last October, Sturbridge voters rejected a proposal that called for the building of a track and a community center.

“A month from now we will be ready to release the site,” Raffetto said. “We have found two places. Now it's matter of seeing what makes most sense. There are pros and cons to each one.”

The plan is to build a small facility that can comfortably hold 3,000 to 4,000 fans. Raffetto said building the track may cost about $60 million.

“A lot depends on the nature of the facility,” he said. “How big and ornate do you want the facility to be? Are you building permanent barns, are you bringing in barns that would be temporary structures set up just for the meet? If you are going to build a track from scratch, the building, the barns and everything else that goes with it, it probably would end up costing you $60 million for a simple structure. Does it mean that's what we will spend? It could be. Some of the estimates we've gotten have been greater than that. It really depends on the location. It could be $50 million, it could be $90 million. We want a first-class facility, don't get me wrong. But we want something that makes sense in this day and age.”

There is a glut of racing already operating in the Northeast and the horse population shrinks every year, which could make it hard for a new Massachusetts track to find enough horses to put on a show. With that in mind, Raffetto said the plan is to run a short meet, most likely in the fall. In addition, there will be just one racing surface–a grass course.

“Racing the way we knew it, with a track running for 100 or more days, well, the horse flesh is just not there to do that,” he said. “You have to keep it special. Those festival meets we did at Suffolk worked. We're trying to make this more of a festival-type thing rather than an everyday humdrum-type operation. We will have one course–a wide turf course where we can have two or three positions for the rail. Trainers want to run on the grass.”

As far as when the proposed track, which does not yet have a name, might open, Raffetto said it will happen “sooner than a lot of people might expect.” One possibility, he said, is that racing could get underway before the stands are built.

“It wouldn't be something like three years out,” he said. “Who knows? It could wind up being next year.”

Racing isn't expanding. It is contracting. Just last year alone the sport lost Arlington Park and Calder and several tracks are being kept alive only so that their owners can keep their casinos. Can a new track, far removed from a major city, one where the owners have no expectations of profiting from a casino, make it? It won't be easy, but in Massachusetts they appear ready to give it a try.

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Fire Destroys Suffolk Downs Press Box

A six-alarm fire destroyed the press box and announcer's booth atop the historic grandstand at Suffolk Downs in East Boston Monday night. The former Massachusetts track was vacant at the time except for security personnel, and no one was injured in the blaze.

As firefighters monitored hot spots and tried to determine a cause Tuesday morning, there was a sense of “it could have been worse” among neighbors and onlookers at the scene.

Although the roof of the building sustained fire and water damage, the hulking steel-and-concrete structure built in 1935 still stands, with the southern clubhouse portion appearing undamaged.

Suffolk Downs last hosted Thoroughbred racing on June 30, 2019.

The fire broke out exactly five years to the date that HYM Investment Group, LLC, acquired the 161-acre property with the intention of redeveloping the site for a mixed-use project involving biotechnology labs and 4,200 housing units.

The massive project is considered extremely lucrative because the parcel represents one of the largest, un-subdivided pieces of land in greater Boston.

The Suffolk Downs stable area had been razed several years ago, and that section of the property–technically in the neighboring city of Revere and hundreds of yards away from the grandstand–has been in the process of being redeveloped first. Just six days prior to the May 30 fire, HYM had held a ground-breaking ceremony to commemorate the start of that work.

Under a lease arrangement, the previous owners, Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, LLC, have been permitted to keep conducting simulcasting in the clubhouse while the anticipated years-long construction takes place, and the public has been allowed to use the mile-long former racecourse as a park for exercise and dog-walking. No timetable has been publicly disclosed for the demolition or repurposing of the combined grandstand and clubhouse.

The building had been open for simulcasting until about 6:15 p.m. on Memorial Day. The fire was first reported around 9:40 p.m. after an alarm went off.

The fire appears to have begun in the north section of the press box where the TV control room for simulcasting was located.

Regulars who frequented the press box when the track was still operational for live racing recall that cramped area as a nest of both old and patchworked electrical wiring snaking among wood-paneled walls.

According to Twitter postings from the official Boston Fire Department (BFD) account, the blaze rapidly grew in intensity, leading Boston Fire Commissioner John Dempsey to take command as departments from neighboring municipalities rushed to help.

Photos of the in-progress fire posted by BFD showed flames wiping out the announcer's booth directly above the TV control room. The satellite dishes used to receive simulcast signals were also located on that section of the roof.

Access to hydrants was cited as a problem, and firefighters had to relay together thousands of feet of hosing after knocking down fences that separated the track property from an adjacent neighborhood of triple-deckers to get to hydrants.

“We had a very difficult time with water. It's very limited here,” said Dempsey.

Dempsey ordered firefighters off the structure around midnight, shortly before flames burned through the roof. A drone with thermal imaging capabilities was deployed to assess hot spots from above, and crews used multiple tower ladders to combat the blaze.

Chip Tuttle, the chief operating officer for Sterling Suffolk, told the Boston Globe Tuesday that plans are underway to acquire new simulcasting technology and relocate it to the clubhouse.

“The equipment that we need in order to show the races from tracks around the country, that area has been destroyed,” Tuttle said. “So there will be some interruption in our on-site simulcasting for at least a week, perhaps longer than that.”

At the time of its construction 87 years ago, Suffolk Downs was considered an architectural marvel. Amid the rush to take advantage of newly legalized pari-mutuel wagering in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the track was constructed in just 62 days on a former landfill atop coastal salt marshes.

Prior to opening day on July 10, 1935, the Boston Globe wrote that, “There is no doubt that Suffolk Downs is the last word in racing plants. From every spot in the spacious grandstand one can secure a glimpse of the entire track. The clubhouse is the ultimate in all respects. Everything is mahogany and modern… The press box at Suffolk Downs is on top of the grandstand. It is 100 feet long, one of the largest racetrack press boxes in the country.”

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Robert Raymond Passes Away

Robert “Bobby” Raymond passed away Sunday at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor, Fla., from septic shock. He was 74. Raymond trained 1,294 winners during his 43-year career and finished eighth in the 2020-2021 trainer's standings at Tampa Bay Downs.

The longtime trainer suffered an infection in a cut on his leg and was rushed to the hospital last Friday. His condition gradually worsened over the next two days before he passed away at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

“He never stopped fighting. His heart was so big,” Rob Raymond said of his father. “He hardly ever took a minute for himself. He had a great love for the animals and all the people he was involved with. He never had a problem helping someone on the backstretch who was in need. He touched so many people, and the outpouring of love and affection we've received the last 24 hours has been unbelievable. We've had people calling offering condolences from Cuba to Canada.”

Raymond, a Woonsocket, R.I., product who owned Bobkat Stable farm in North Smithfield, R.I., with his wife Kathy, began training in 1979 at Suffolk Downs in Boston and made Tampa Bay Downs his winter base during the 2003-2004 season.

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