Massachusetts Live Racing Application Deadline to Pass

The deadline for submission of applications to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for live racing dates in 2020 is Oct. 1, but none will be submitted to the regulators by Tuesday at close of business for a Thoroughbred meet. Nonetheless, the gate isn't closed on the Thoroughbreds running at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds next year.

"We are not applying for dates at Suffolk Downs consistent with what we have stated publicly and the landlord's demolition schedule for the barn area, and we are not applying for dates anywhere else because the law does not authorize us to do so," said Chip Tuttle, the COO of Sterling Suffolk Racecourse LLC, which sold the 161-acre racetrack grounds to a major real estate developer in 2017 but retained the racing and simulcasting operations.

SSR currently holds a simulcasting license only since the obligation for live racing in calendar year 2019 was fulfilled at the conclusion of the six-day meet June 30. The SSR management team has renewed its option with the owners of the long-shuttered Great Barrington Fairgrounds racetrack in Western Massachusetts to revitalize that property with the intent of running a short live meet there in 2020.

Since SSR is not the current property owner state racing laws preclude the entity from applying for any dates at this time.

Although Oct. 1 is the MGC's application deadline for dates in the following calendar year, there is precedent established with the gaming commission for missing the deadline yet still being able to file an application months later, have it approved, and run the live meet.

In 2014 SSR announced that all live racing would cease at Suffolk Downs as a consequence of the MGC's failure to award the single Boston area casino license to its gaming partner, Mohegan Sun. SSR did not apply for 2015 dates by the Oct. 1 deadline, but then in March 2015 legislation was passed that reduced the number of minimum live racing days required to "from one day to 50", which allowed SSR to reconsider its decision and hold a short live meet with a handful of days.

SSR then applied for, and was granted, a racing license by the MGC in the same calendar year.

The current Massachusetts racing laws, which were extended July 31, 2019, removed the requirement for SSR to race at least one day in order to simulcast due to the on-going demolition of Suffolk Downs and the complete redevelopment of the property that does not include a racetrack. It is expected that lawmakers will revisit the statutes in 2020 and could pass revised racing bills which will make the development of a new venue elsewhere more attractive to investors.

Currently, two other competing development groups have stepped forward with plans to construct a new Thoroughbred racetrack in Massachusetts and sources say a fourth is waiting in the wings. But those groups would need a considerable overhaul of the current laws before any shovels could go into the ground.

The Notos Group LLC announced plans in August for a $300 million casino, racetrack, and sports facility called Wareham Park on a 275-acre site in East Wareham, and in September the Rowley Group LLC unveiled plans for a $60 million racetrack stand-alone project on a 284-acre parcel in Rowley, MA.

"We continue to believe the plan to refurbish Great Barrington is the most practical for the continuance for Thoroughbred racing in Massachusetts and it is the most realistic," said Tuttle.