On a bright and sunny summer afternoon, Bangor Raceway manager Fred Nichols sat in his Bass Park office explaining his sport to a harness racing-challenged novice.

As Nichols talked a horse munched grass in a field outside his office. It was peaceful. A quiet setting for a man who ran minor league baseball clubs and then worked in the high-pressure environment of Victor Kiam’s corporate office.

“This could all be gone,” he is saying. “2004 is supposed to be the last year for the auditorium. I don’t have a good feel for what’s going to happen. Other than something is going to happen. Of course, it will be a difference council then.”

Proposals are in the works. A new auditorium? Refurbish the old one? Tear down Bangor Raceway? A Bar Harbor consulting firm has submitted a preliminary report to the Bangor City Council that really revealed little.

“There’s a lot of support within the community to keep this here. It’s nice to have all this green space in the middle of the city. If you put something out in the middle of that you’ve lost that element,” Nichols said.

He points out that this is one of the few times inner-city kids can see horses.

“They can walk around the track. People walk their dogs. You can make some argument to preserve it on that basis.”

Some people believe harness racing is a dying sport. The novice is told to drive by there some night by such a person. Go up Buck Street on racing night. The stands are empty.

But Nichols will have none of that.

“We have the largest, I’m told, live attendance east of New Jersey. There are people who come every night. They would shout if it were taken away.”

He said that May and June are indeed difficult because of the weather. But July makes up for it.

“On a Sunday afternoon there’s 1,200 to 1,500 people here. And it’s people you don’t normally see. People with their strollers, young people. Sometimes it’s really full. You can’t get a seat on the Fourth of July.”

Still, Nichols acknowledges, as things stand now it’s a break-even deal for him. Part of the problem he blames on state government’s involvement in the lottery.

“The lottery has caused such huge erosions. At one time horse racing had the only legal gambling. Can you name another industry where the state is your mandated partner and also your biggest competitor as they are here? The state takes a commission out of every dollar and they’re on every street corner and on TV with the lottery programs.”

The city, he said, prospers from having the track. He points to the trailer lot as being full with Canadians. Their being there, he said, is a boon to the local economy.

“It’s a one-way relationship. It’s city property. We pay them rent. It’s a substantial rent. It’s more per diem than they would get out of any other user.”

Nichols says that the city cuts the grass and that the raceway management pays for maintenance.

“We’ve upgraded it. The improvements we’ve made are really substantial. But now there will be a cap on that because [of the uncertainty for the future].”

He said there’s good interplay between city and raceway management.

“We have a pretty good relationship with them. I think Bass Park and therefore city management probably would like to see this in other uses. But I don’t think the council shares that. The ones I’ve talked to, I get a feeling that they value it and would like to see it continue.”

Whatever happens, Nichols said he would be OK.

“But out there,” he said pointing to the stables. “It’s a different story and these are the people I worry about. They are grooms, the trainers. They know nothing else. What will they do?”

Down the stretch: Racing at the Fryeburg Fair begins Tuesday, Oct. 2 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 7. Scheduled are 10 races each day. Bill Haynes, Fryeburg’s assistant racing director, said the average purse for races should be $1,600. Among the bigger purses are the $6,000 Mountain Skipper Invitational Pace and the $4,500 Ed Keller Memorial Trot. Both will be raced Sunday. Haynes said there would also be $3,000 races throughout the week.