Fate of New Massachusetts Racetrack Up to Voters

Whether live Thoroughbred racing in New England will be restored and the breeding industry will be revived is now up to the voters in the town of Hardwick, Mass., where the principals of Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center propose to develop a new racetrack.

In the latest development in the on-again-off-again saga over the past two months, when the Hardwick Board of Selectmen reversed itself by first voting unanimously to kill the plan to site the track on the 360-acre Meadowbrook Farm but then later approved it, the three-member board decided 2-1 on the evening of Nov. 21 to let the voters be the ultimate arbiters.

The most recent vote by the board sets up a special town election on Jan. 7, 2023.

Letting the Hardwick voters decide is the newest development on whether Thoroughbreds will be racing on an all-turf course for a proposed short boutique meet of two days in September 2023.

To review the changing tide in the town, at a board meeting in Hardwick on October 25 and in the wake of growing opposition to the project, the three-member panel voted to delay an up or down vote so that the local community could have more input. Only two days later on Oct. 27, the board changed course and voted 3-0 to reject the project. Then on Nov. 9 the board reversed itself again and voted 2-1 to approve it.

Signed petitions by community members both in support of and in opposition to the new track, which will also be a breeding center and racehorse retirement facility, have been submitted to the town clerk over the months-long process.

In essence, the board's 2-1 vote on Monday was to not reconsider its most recent 2-1 vote of Nov. 9 and proceed to the special election.

At that same meeting, the board decided that a committee will now be assembled to gather more information about the proposal to develop the farm into the racetrack and equine center and present the complete findings to the voters in advance of the Jan. 7 special election.

"Over the next 45 days the horsemen will be making our case that this project is not just good for the investor, it is equally good for the horsemen, the breeders, the town, and for all the jobs involved that will be created even with a two-day meet to start. We will present the facts, so there are no misconceptions or misunderstandings," said Paul Umbrello, executive director of the New England affiliate of the Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association. "We are fighting to keep racing and breeding alive."

Fields and his partners in Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center have executed a purchase-and-sales agreement for the Meadowbrook Farm property, but that deal has an end date in February 2023.

Meanwhile, Richard Fields, who is one of the owners of Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which operated Suffolk Downs when that track held live meets, and his different partners in CEAC filed an application for a 2023 live Thoroughbred racing license with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission before the Oct. 1 deadline.

The MGC was mandated by state law to rule on that application by Nov. 15, but commissioners suspended that meeting during an emergency session on Nov. 14 before casting their vote on the application. It is being held in abeyance until the local townsfolk in Hardwick have their say.

Sterling Suffolk Racecourse sold the Suffolk Downs property to a real estate developer in May 2017. The last live meet in New England was hosted by the New England HBPA at Suffolk Downs and ended on June 30, 2019. Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire, another of the 17 defunct Thoroughbred tracks that once dotted the New England region, last held a live meet in 2002, and the property was sold for a multi-mixed-use real estate development in 2016.