BANGOR – Horsemen, horses, track officials and fans at Bangor Raceway have seemingly been waiting at the starting gate all spring.

Following Friday’s announcement that racing would be suspended indefinitely at Bangor Historic Track, some of them may be considering bolting the sport entirely.

A slowly-draining track caused dangerously soft and spongy stretches that forced the cancellation of Bangor Raceway’s first nine race dates. First it was thought that an unusually late spring thaw was the culprit, but then officials placed the blame on the use of salt this past winter that wasn’t mixed with sand or dirt, preventing underground spring runoff from evaporating.

Thursday, Bangor track superintendent Arnie Van Dyne and retired construction specialist Sonny Higgins discovered that a portion of the 6-inch, underground drainage pipe that runs all the way around the interior of the track was completely clogged with mud.

“We had a couple areas we repaired earlier that went soft on us again,” said Jon Johnson, general manager of Penn National’s Bangor operations (Hollywood Slots casino, Bangor Raceway and Bangor off-track betting). “When we dug out those areas again, we found there was more water accumulating so we went right to the drainage pipe, and at least in that area we dug up, it was totally plugged with mud.”

City workers unplugged that portion of pipe Friday afternoon and will be continuing to unclog another section they know is plugged, as well as checking all of the rest of it.

“They’ll most likely have it totally unplugged by Monday, but rather than keep postponing, we wanted to suspend it because we also want to come up with a plan on what we’re going to do with the track surface after the water under it drains out,” Johnson explained.

Johnson met with Van Dyne, state racing steward Ralph Canney, and Maine State Harness Racing Commission executive director Henry Jackson, as well as several members of the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association Friday afternoon. They all inspected the track.

“We all agreed the track is not suitable for racing tonight and probably wouldn’t be on Sunday,” Johnson said. “We didn’t want to keep postponing dates, so at 3 p.m. we made the decision to postpone racing until further notice.”

The track is very hard in some spots and soft in others.

“About 20 of us drove trucks all around the track to try to pack it down and you could see it going down about a good six or seven inches in places,” said Bangor native Shawn Nye, a longtime trainer and owner. “It looked like a plowed field afterward.”

Nye and fellow horsemen could only laugh and shake their heads after finding out there would be no racing for the foreseeable future.

“What else can we do?” said trainer Steve Vafiades, a fourth-generation horseman from Bangor. “I mean, it’s either that or cry. All this should have been taken care of six weeks ago. About all we can do is train and jog the horses.”

Vafiades and Nye have both been urging owners of the 28 horses they train not to pull them out of Bangor.

“It’s tough. The horses are all ready to race and owners are frustrated. They don’t like paying to have them trained and not have them race,” said Nye. “Fortunately, Steve and I have good owners, so instead of moving them down to Scarborough or their own farms, they’ll probably ship them back and forth from here to race.”

Vafiades said friend and fellow horseman Cain MacKenzie of Etna told him he’s seriously considering getting out of the business entirely.

“I just bought a horse from him,” Vafiades said. “Great timing, huh? I also just sold a horse trailer and now that I’ll probably have to go to Scarborough, I need one.”

Bangor did finally open its season with an eight-race card Wednesday night, but conditions were far from ideal.

“It was like going from concrete to sponge. I was telling people they shouldn’t race because it was dangerous,” Nye said. “The surface was so uneven the [mobile starting] gate looked like an airplane going through turbulence. It’s a miracle no horses were hurt.”

Vafiades said one horse stumbled out of the gate after stepping in a hole and almost fell down.

“That’s why we don’t know how long it will take,” Johnson said of the uneven track surface. “We want the track to dry out and then decide on a corrective plan. Right now we don’t know what kind of work we’ll have to do on it specifically.”

Johnson said horses will still be allowed to train and jog on the track. That will keep many horsemen from leaving, but many Canadian drivers and trainers are heading home.

“It’s not their [Bangor Raceway officials] fault. They want to race and they’re fixing the track, but it has taken so long,” Nye said. “Meanwhile, we’re not racing, so there’s no purse money coming in and it’s too late to race at Scarborough Downs this weekend.

“Plus with us not racing, there’s an overabundance of horses and much more competition for entries, and our horses haven’t raced like the ones further south, so they have an advantage. It’s just tough all around.”

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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