Workers repair sections; racing set for Wednesday

Five postponements, nine canceled race dates, 24 days and innumerable man hours after it was supposed to open its 125th season of harness racing, Bangor Raceway appears ready to race.

Officials think they’ve finally solved the frost and drainage problems that have created dangerously soft and spongy surface conditions on the half-mile course.

“The track was drying out, but we looked at it [Thursday morning] and decided we’d dig up one of the wet areas and replace it with dry clay, gravel and a stone dust mixture,” said Jon Johnson, general manager of Penn National’s Bangor operations (Hollywood Slots, Bangor Raceway, and Bangor off-track betting). “It looks like that has made a difference. It firmed that area up.”

So on Friday, track superintendent Arnie Van Dyne and other workers brought in an excavator to dig up the other problem areas and a dump truck full of dry clay to fill them in before topping them off with more gravel and stone dust.

To allow themselves plenty of time to repair the track and give local horsemen plenty of notice if they opt to race their horses at Scarborough Raceway instead, Johnson agreed to postpone Sunday afternoon’s tentatively scheduled race card and officially open the season Wednesday.

“We wanted to give the horsemen plenty of notice so they’d have plenty of time to put their horses in at another track if they wished,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing more annoying then telling them we’re planning to go and then not be able to over and over again.”

Many horsemen have been inconvenienced at best and financially hurt at worst while waiting to race as expenses continued to mount, but there was no opportunity to race and earn purse money to offset those expenses.

“We’re really sorry the horsemen have been so put out and suffered a lot,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of empathy for them and we’ve been working as hard as we can to resolve it.”

Bangor Raceway will host a cookout/barbecue open to all horsemen and track employees on opening day starting around 5:30 p.m.

“We want to show our appreciation for their patience,” said Johnson.

Johnson said Thursday’s patchwork was a test case and was not without potential complications.

“What we tried today was risky,” he said. “A couple things could have happened. We could have potentially pushed water into new areas, and any time you plug or patch a track, there’s always a chance that the patch won’t meld well with the new material, but it appears we’ve hit on the right mixture and it seems to have worked quite well.”

So well that the Bangor Historic Track probably could have successfully held races Sunday but elected to postpone one more time.

“We got together with the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association and the [Maine State Harness Racing] Commission and decided to put it off until Wednesday,” said Johnson.

The patching solution should work so well, Johnson says weather shouldn’t be a factor.

“Weather-wise, I think we’re good through Sunday, but even if it rains, we won’t have to cover it,” he said.

Post time for Wednesday’s opening night of races is 7 p.m.

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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