Atlantic Lotto agreement not likely to impact Bangor meet

Stockholders at Bangor Raceway this week must have felt like Mark Twain when he penned, “the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” A story circulating this week in eastern Maine had Bangor Raceway dead and buried for the 1998 racing season because of a change in the structure of gaming in Canada’s Maritime provinces.

“That’s just not the case,” said Fred Nichols, general manager of Bangor Historic Track, operator of Bangor’s 26-date summer harness meet. He said the Bangor racing office has just about the same number of stall applications from Canadian horsemen as last year.

“We’re very much alive and kicking,” Nichols said, “and hope to have a very successful season.”

Atlantic Lotto, a gaming association in Canada’s Maritime provinces, features weekly and bi-weekly lottery drawings. Atlantic Lotto also has a legal monopoly in Canada to install and operate video lottery terminals at prime locations, including racetracks. Some VLT are owned privately and have a service contract, but most VLTs are owned and serviced by Atlantic Lotto.

During the past three years, four Canadian Provinces adjacent to Maine – Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and most recently New Brunswick, voted to allow gambling on VLTs. Part of each VLT agreement signed by respective provincial governments contained an addendum to have Atlantic Lotto fund a three-year racing contract with Maritime harness tracks.

In the racing agreement, Atlantic Lotto said it would assume the total operation of Maritime racetracks – including purse structure, advertising and promotion, number of race days and number of dashes. The Canadian Racing Commission, in concert with Atlantic Lotto, would assign racing officials.

Atlantic Lotto also agreed to invest $12 million annually in the racetracks for 312 days of racing, raise purses by 100 percent, and provide sizable increases in the Atlantic Sire Stakes and invitational purses.

Major Canadian tracks involved include: Charlottetown Park, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Truro Raceway, Truro, Nova Scotia; Exhibition Park Raceway, St. John, New Brunswick; and smaller tracks at Summerside, Inverness and Fredericton Raceway.

Doug Harkness, editor and publisher of Atlantic Post Calls, a harness publication in Amherst, Nova Scotia, said Thursday, “I look for Canadian owners and drivers to continue the trend of racing at Bangor Raceway. It has been a tradition for more than a decade. We already have a colony of Canadian drivers at Scarborough Downs and I’m sure they will stay.

“Under this racing agreement, Maritime tracks will not increase racing schedules. For instance, St. John will still only race one day a week. Maybe some of the aggressive Canadian drivers will race one day in Canada and race the rest of the week in Maine, like Steve Mahar usually does.”

Harkness said although the racing part of the lotto bill has not been fully implemented in New Brunswick, “it probably will be within a short time and it has solid support from all the Canadian horsemen’s organizations.” He believes the biggest increases in purse structure will be in the invitationals and the Atlantic Sire Stakes.

“Some of the tracks have been racing for $250 and $300,” Harkness said. “Even if Atlantic Lotto doubles the purses to $600 or even $800, that isn’t matching the $900 minimum at Bangor Raceway and at Maine’s agricultural fairs. And that $900 minumum is American, not Canadian money. Add the exchange rate and it is a big difference. What this whole idea of increased money will do I think, is attract new owners to the horse business in the Maritimes.”

Harkness said Canadian harness tracks have received a “shot in the arm” from Atlantic Lotto, but the thought of Bangor Raceway closing because of the lotto is pretty far-fetched. “Bangor will have the Canadians racing there this year and for years to come. It’s more than just money that brings them to Maine,” he concluded.

But like all plans, there are dissenters to the Atlantic Lottery Corp.’s racing agreement. Some Canadian racetrack officials have voiced displeasure with the Atlantic Lottery’s plan to rent their facilities on a per-day basis. Racetrack directors say the plan has no contingency that would allow track management to retire existing debts, but the lotto board says they are not in the business of clearing old debts.

In six weeks, on June 5, Bangor Historic Track will open its 1998 extended harness meet at Bass Park’s half-mile racetrack with 26 days of racing. To have enough horses to race full, eight-horse fields is always a problem, but Norm Murray, grounds superintendent at Bangor Raceway, said this week, “The track is in great condition. Despite the winter ice storm, winter damage was minimal.”

There are more than a dozen Maine Sire Stakes 2- and 3-year-old hopefuls stabled in the Bangor barns. In about two weeks, Bangor will offer schooling behind the starting gate for the stakes youngsters who are ready, and for aged horses.

For information, call Murray at (207) 947-6744. Nichols also has tapped Paul Brown from St. John, New Brunswick, to be Bangor’s new race secretary.