Bangor Raceway may give fan $50,000 for opener

There are 50,000 reasons to attend opening night at Bangor Raceway on Friday, June 5, according to Fred Nichols, general manager of the Bangor track – and they are all dollar bills.

“We will try to give away $50,000 to some lucky racing patron that night,” Nichols said.

Nichols talked this week about his latest promotion for the upcoming 26-day Bangor race meet. He and a representative from Maine Distributors, the contest’s co-sponsor, will draw the name of a racing patron – who must be there – and that person will select one Budweiser can from a display of 50.

“Each can will have a number on it and inside one can, there will be a check for $50,000. Make the right choice and win the money, but, if the $50,000 isn’t won, the track will present a cash consolation prize,” Nicholos said.

Nichols also plans other promotions. In addition to a continued free-admission policy, the track will also offer other family-oriented events: a car giveaway, a handicapping contest; an all-expense paid trip to the Bahamas; Dixieland brass bands; The Maine Sire Stakes; racing and fireworks on July 4th; a huge Shrine parade and trot race and the Penobscot High Stakes Bingo Invitational Pace.

It’s an ambitious schedule and family entertainment is well received at the Bangor track. But the primary concern at any startup race meet is not one of promotions, but one of horse supply. Will there be enough horses to operate a successful meet?

“Stall applications for both Canadian and American horses are running just about the same as last year. As yet, the new Atlantic Lotto hasn’t changed that. We hope horsemen, both Canadian and American, will support this program here in Bangor,” Nichols said.

Nichols confirmed Wednesday that Paul Brown of Saint John, New Brunswick, will be the Bangor race secretary and be in Bangor on May 21. Brown is a former race secretary at Exhibition Park in Saint John and was a horse trainer who raced a stable at Bangor during the 1996 season. Walter McIntire of Hampden returns as presiding judge, along with associates Pam Merrill and Dana Delisle.

Bangor Raceway will hold qualifying races at 10:30 a.m. on May 23, May 30, and June 2.

County Raceway in Presque Isle is also gearing up for its eight days of extended meet racing beginning June 12.

“We have seven Fridays of racing and one Saturday rain date,” Joy Drost, president of County Raceway, said Thursday. “The Canadian situation slows us down somewhat, but we are progressing. We still are about $5,000 away squaring up with United Tote, but everything else is clear. We have a really great, active board of directors this year.”

Drost said the Atlantic Lottery Commission’s contracts with Canadian tracks might have an affect on the horse supply at Presque Isle. She said she has frequent conversations with Mark Collett, the horsemen’s representative at Fredericton Raceway in New Brunswick. Collett, who races the Presque Isle track, says the Fredericton track has a mixture of about 100 horses on the grounds – babies, overnighters, invitationals, claimers, etc.

Like horse populations at any racetrack, Drost said, some are better, some are slower, some will race Fredericton, some Exhibition Park, some Presque Isle and some will stable and race Bangor.

“That’s the way it’s been for quite a long time,” he said.

Fredericton reluctantly signed a contract with Atlantic Lotto to race every Wednesday this summer season, Drost said. The Fredericton racetrack still owes approximately $1 million in back debts and wanted Atlantic Lotto to absorb the debts before they signed a contract. The gaming company, however, refused to accept the track’s past financial problems as part of a new operations agreement.

At Exhibition Park, “as of Thursday, they just don’t seem to want to sign the contract,” Drost said. Atlantic Lotto is expected to be operating New Brunswick tracks as early as July 1.

Two other Canadian racetracks, Truro Raceway in Nova Scotia and Charlottetown Park on Prince Edward Island, have already signed contracts with Atlantic Lotto. Drost said County Raceway will hold qualifying races on June 7.