Harness dates still on hold while parties wrangle over purse

AUGUSTA – Maine still lacks a racing schedule for 1995 and will not have one until after the holidays.

Three meetings dealing with 1995 race dates have been held and the Maine State Harness Racing Commission has yet to approve race dates for agricultural fairs, extended meets or off-track betting facilities for next year.

At the commission’s six-hour meeting on Tuesday, operators of both harness tracks and OTBs assumed that if the commission made no decision about next year’s dates by the time their licenses expire on Dec. 31, the entire harness racing industry, including OTBs, would be forced to shut down.

Not so, says commission chairman Phil Tarr.

A legal opinion on licensing issued to Tarr and the commission from the Maine attorney general’s office says the state and commission have the authority to extend all current licenses until new licenses are issued to qualified operators.

Tarr’s statement at the commission’s date hearings on Tuesday helped alleviate some of the OTB operators’ anxiety, but the question of live race dates in Maine is far from resolved.

During a recent MSHRC date hearing, Sheridan Smith, president of the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association, expressed concern over the whereabouts of the horsemen’s purse account of $150,000. Smith also expressed his opposition to issuing any license to Scarborough Downs for 1995.

On Tuesday, Smith and MHHA legal counsel Craig Rancourt continued to hammer at Scarborough Downs, wanting to know the whereabouts of the horsemen’s purse account.

That account is money extracted from public wagering, by statute and contract, and held in trust by the host track to be added to the purses of horsemen who race at Scarborough.

“All we want to know,” Rancourt kept interjecting, “is where is the horsemen’s purse money?”

Rancourt said he had concerns as to whether any part of the horsemen’s account had been “factored” by Scarborough Downs for other uses.

Greg Battison, vice president of Scarborough Downs, assured Rancourt that it had not. “It is a credit that is due (the horsemen),” Battison said. “It is a liability that is owed to them.”

Rancourt produced documents showing the commission that Scarborough had sold its state stipend accounts to Patriot Funding of New York, a subsidary of United Credit.

At Tarr’s request, Battison explained that factoring is a method used by businesses to generate operating capital with an infusion of cash by signing promissory notes (or state vouchers) over to the lender.

“It’s not illegal,” Battison said. “It’s a perfectly legitimate financial tool businesses use every day.”

Commissioner Richard Crabtree asked Battison if he considered it good business practice to pay an almost 25 percent interest penalty to borrow money.

Battison said he believed it was not an unusual charge for abusiness such as a race track.

“Where is the purse money?” Rancourt again asked Battison.

Battison said it was in an interest-bearing account in Davric’s parent company, Golden Ark. But he refused to tell Rancourt what account or the number. When repeatedly asked for the account name, Battison said, “No, I won’t tell you.”

Rancourt asked the chair to direct Battison to give him the information.

“It appears that this is a question that will not be answered,” said Jeff Pidot, the commission’s legal counsel. “Let’s move on. I believe you have all you are going to get from him.”

Pidot reminded commissioners they might take Battison’s testimony into consideration when deliberating Scarborough’s race dates.

Joe Ricci, Scarborough Downs owner, admonished the racing commission for conspiring to steal his business.

Ricci has said he would step down from operating the track and turn it over to Sharon Terry, his business partner, and a new management group for one year.

But Ricci left the podium promising to file suits against the commission and the attorney general’s office “for systematically trying to put me out of business, to destroy my race track and destroy my life.”

The next date hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, at the Augusta Civic Center.