Brockton Cancels Fair Meet Plans

In the wake of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's unanimous vote to deny the $1.4 million funding request by the owners of the Brockton Fairgrounds to cover the operational and administrative costs for a 15-day meet, track owners Aug. 10 called off the return of any live racing this year.

"We won't run the meet. Not at all," said Chris Carney, a track executive and the son of track owner George Carney. "This is a bitter disappointment."

While convening for the third time since July 21 to take up the complicated question of whether the request from the Middleborough Agricultural Society, the licensee, for $1,473,947 to cover expenses with a distribution from the state's Race Horse Development Fund is allowable under state law, the commissioners reached a consensus that public money cannot be used to support a private entity.

Nonetheless, in a separate 5-0 vote the MGC did approve the addition of $400,000 to the prior request from the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association for $262,000 to cover the group's administrative costs. The $400,000 sum would be used to pay for stabling and training at the track over 112 days.

Carney said that the additional $400,000 wasn't enough to move forward with plans to bring the Thoroughbreds back to the fairgrounds, which last held racing in 2001. The four-furlong racing surface has yet to be certified as meeting industry safety standards, no safety rail is in place, the barn area upgrade is incomplete, and a jockeys' insurance policy has not been executed, among other issues.

"The numbers just won't work. I have a $3 million layout, plus we lost our shirts in 2001," Carney said.

The commissioners, who also approved a $2.6 million distribution for purses, listened with a sympathetic ear to repeated and impassioned pleas from Bill Lagorio, the president of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which splintered from the New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and executed a two-year purse agreement with the Carney family. The NEHBPA is contracted with Suffolk Downs for only a six-day meet in 2016.

"It's the horsemen who need this (the $1.4 million that would have gone to track operators). It's the only facility we have," Lagorio said. "At an additional $400,000, we wouldn't go forward. We really need this money to get this done. The money is for the advantage of the horsemen and it will be an investment in the Massachsuetts economy. The farms can't exist anymore.

"We need to race at this facility to put horsemen back to work and put some of our people back on their feet."

Commissioner Gayle Cameron said, "We hear you. We are very sympathetic to the passionate group of horsemen that wants this. But we still have a legal responsibility when dealing with state funds. The application before us does not pass the sniff test."

Carney said that his family put forth its best effort.

"It's too bad we're unable to move ahead. It's a shame. But it wasn't for lack of trying. Suffolk chose not to run (a full meet) and we chose to run (as many days as state law allows for a fair track), but now our hands are tied," he said. "I knew we had an uphill battle going in, but I never thought it would be as bad as it was. I changed my proposal (to the MGC) seven times to try to make it work. This is a big blow to Thoroughbred racing in Massachusetts."

In related news, the MGC unanimously approved Suffolk Downs' request to utilize NYRA Bets for advanced deposit wagering services.