The extended harness meet at Bangor Raceway this past summer was a dismal performance and barely managed to complete its 26-date race allocation and maintain its commercial meet status.

Fred Nichols, raceway manager for Bangor Historic Track, the lessees of the city-owned, Bass Park racing complex, said, “the final figures are not yet available because of pending stipends, but it doesn’t look good for the year. We lost money.”

But at a recent BHT directors meeting, board members decided to coninue next year. One change his investor group insisted he implement next year, Nichols said, was a new race secretary.

Nichols was the race secretary at Bangor this past season and said “that was music to my ears.” He indicated he had already begun to search for a race secretary for next season. Also, at the meeting, the BHT investor group voted to apply to race 29 days in Bangor in 2000.

Nichols believes the attendance at Bangor was a positive sign.

“It (attendance) was pretty good this year. There is always a core of racing fans at Bangor Raceway, but there were a lot of first-timers too,” he said, “people who don’t show with the same frequency, but bring their families. And the weather for us the past two racing seasons at Bangor was perfect for summer harness racing.”

According to figures supplied by the Maine Harness Racing Commission, Bangor’s commercial meet parimutuel handle for 1999 (dollars wagered only) was $960,122 as compared to $1,069,755 in 1998, a decrease of $109,633 or approximately 11 percent. Bangor races averaged less than 10 dashes per racing program this year, a decrease of 10 percent from 1998, Nichols said.

“And dollarwise, we were way off this year. I’m not making excuses, but we were plagued by some really serious problems at the Bangor meet this year,” said Nichols.

Nichols said early on in the meet when the Bangor track was operating two days each week, “our on-track parimutuel handle was up over last year by almost 14 percent and by the end of June, the handle was still showing a 2 percent increase. Then we got hit by a virus that had 30 horses sick in the barns for almost three weeks. That really caused the parimutuel handle to drop drastically. And when we couldn’t get enough horses to race on Friday nights, that really put the handle in a tailspin.

“But everything really went to pieces in July which was a terrible month for us,” Nichols said. “We got hammered by the off-track betting parlors in Maine.”

He also said all of Maine’s OTBs were taking all of Bangor’s simulcast races, according to the law, but the wagering on the Bangor races fell off by almost 35 percent. “They weren’t playing our track and that almost toppled us,” he said.

MHRC figures indicate that wagering at Maine’s OTBs on Bangor’s 26 days of simulcast racing in 1998 was $216,568 as compared to 1999 when the total OTB wagers on Bangor 26 days of racing was $139,517, off $77,051.

Nichols was successful, however, in getting the MHRC to make a temporary rule change which helped wagering. The commission voted to drop the seven-horse requirement needed to program a trifecta and make it six entries on regular conditioned races and five for special event or feature races. The rule change becomes permanent in the 2000 harness racing season.

Bangor Historic Track has been a good tenant for the city of Bangor. According to BHT’s figures, the city has shown a substantial profit each of the six years the investor group has operated Bangor’s Bass Park racing facility. BHT has paid the city of Bangor $240,000 in rental fees; made new capital improvements of $171,906 and paid $164,567 for regular maintenance of barns, grandstand, paddock and the administration building.

That equals a grand total of $576,473 or $96,079 each year.

The is the first time in more than two decades that the racing end of the city-owned complex has produced positive revenues for the Bangor taxpayer rather than negative figures. Without a paying tenant, many of those repairs and fixed costs at Bass Park would still remain for the taxpayer to endure.

Under facilities improvements, Nichols said his group is looking at two possibilities at the city-owned racing facilities. The first option is building a new and expanded building atop the grandstand that houses racing officials – judges, charter, timer, announcer, etc. The second project is a new facade for the grandstand that would cover and dress up the entire outside of the existing structure, either in vinyl or brick finish.

PACING BITS – Ken Ronco, executive secretary of the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association, is retiring at the end of the month. After almost 16 years at the position, Ronco said he wants to take some time off and look for something new in the spring. A retired teacher from Lisbon High School, Ronco, held a presiding judge’s license before becoming secretary. Bill Hathaway, president of MHHA, will serve as interim secretary until the annual winter meeting on Saturday, Jan. 22, at the Augusta Civic Center…..Dr. G. Vernon MacDonald, Bangor horse owner for several years and BHP director, is at home recuperating from quadruple heart by-pass surgery. Welcome to the zipper club Doc, see ya on the exercise pads!