RACING HAS A NEW LOOK THIS SUMMER AT SALEM'S ROCKINGHAM PARK.
HARNESS RACING'S PACERS AND TROTTERS HAVE REPLACED THE THOROUGHBREDS AT THE HISTORIC TRACK.
THE MOVE COULD BE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE EVENTUAL CLOSING OF THE ROCK.
THE TRACK HAS BEEN OPERATING SINCE 1906.
BUT SOME SUPPORTERS ARE PLACING THEIR HOPES IN VIDEO SLOT MACHINES TO KEEP ITS DOORS OPEN.
NHPR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT, JIM JEANNOTTE REPORTS.
THE SUMMER RACING SEASON AT ROCKINGHAM PARK IS HEADING INTO THE HOME STRETCH.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES, THOROUGHBRED HORSES have not been competing.
They’ve BEEN REPLACED BY THE TROTTERS AND PACERS.
ROCKINGHAM’S GENERAL MANAGER ED CALLAHAN says A DISPUTE WITH THE THOROUGHBRED HORSEMEN caused THE CHANGE.
Ed Callahan
13 - 8 sec “Rockingham had difficulty in paying the same purses as they were in Massachusetts, primarily because tax structures are very different.”
BUTT/BYTE
15 - 12 sec “We offered a number of alternatives to the thoroughbred horsemen. They would not agree. Our choice was either close the doors or have a harness meet.”
Not everyone liked the move.
MIKE CATALANO SENIOR, NOW RETIRED, RACED THOROUGHBREDS FOR YEARS AT what’s popularly called THE ROCK.
Mike Catalano
4 - 20 sec “Well it hurt me. For all the feelings I have for Rockingham Park. I always said it was the Saratoga of New England...Rockingham. It did hurt me and I didn’t like the idea that thoroughbred racing isn’t here any more.”
THE HARNESS MEET HAS HAD MODERATE SUCCESS.
But AS EXPECTED, ATTENDANCE AND Purses are DOWN OVER PREVIOUS YEARS.
ROCKINGHAM OFFICIALS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THAT RACING WILL CONTINUE THROUGH 2005.
Still THE THREAT lingers that THE TRACK WILL EVENTUALLY CLOSE AND ITS LAND REDEVELOPED
CALLAHAN SAYS THE CLOCK IS NEARING MIDNIGHT.
Ed Callahan
21 - 21 sec “Last fall, we brought in a group to research development possibilities for us. That is on-going. Racing will continue for 2004 and 2005. But as we research the development possibilities, it gets closer and closer to the day when something other than racing will have to occur on this property”
ONE SOLUTION, ACCORDING TO SOME, IS TO INTRODUCE VIDEO LOTTERY AT THE STATE’S RACE TRACKS.
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR LOU D’ALLESANDRO IS THE SPONSOR OF SENATE BILL 117.
The measure PROPOSES ALLOWING SLOT MACHINES AT THE STATE’S FOUR RACE TRACKS.
HE SAYS IN DELAWARE, VIDEO LOTTERY AT DELAWARE PARK HAS SAVED THE RACING INDUSTRY IN THAT STATE.
Lou D’Allesandro
4 - 12 sec “What’s happened in Delaware is racing has improved dramatically at Delaware Park. Better horses. Better purses. The industry has been saved and there has been a windfall of cash to the state treasury.”
BUTT/BYTE
8 - 11 sec “We’d take the purses from what they were. Maybe 80,000 a day and increase them to 150 maybe 200,000 dollars a day. That would bring quality horses back to New Hampshire.”
BRUCE RANGER, THE LEADING DRIVER AT THIS SUMMER’S HARNESS MEET AGREES.
RANGER SAYS HARNESS AND THOROUGHBRED RACE HORSE OWNERS WOULD ALL BENEFIT from video slots at the Park.
Bruce Ranger
29 - 5 sec “You’d have so many owners and people wanting to buy horses to race here because of the purse money.”
BUTT/BYTE
31 - 5 sec “You know it would make a lot of people want to get back in. It would just make it start booming again.”
JIM RUBENS IS A SPOKESMAN FOR THE GRANITE STATE COALITION AGAINST EXPANDED GAMBLING.
INSTEAD OF ADDING SLOTS MACHINES AT ROCKINGHAM, RUBENS SAYS MAYBE IT’S TIME FOR THE SALEM TRACK TO CLOSE.
Jim Rubens
22 - 17 sec “If a particular business in the state have fallen on hard times, and the kind of gambling they have has become passe, it is not the responsibility of the state to prop them up. And businesses that have gone past their prime and lost their market, sometimes close. This may be such a case.”
RUBENS SAYS HIS GROUP OPPOSES VIDEO LOTTERY BECAUSE OF THE ADDICTIONS THEY CREATE.
Jim Rubens
24 - 4 sec “It’s the most addictive form of gambling yet invented.”
BUTT/BYTE
28 - 14 sec “About 20, 30, 40 even up to 50 percent of all the dollars the state takes in comes from those addicts. That one-and-a-half percent of the population who can’t control themselves. Can’t stop themselves from using the video slot machines.”
D’ALLESANDRO COUNTERS BY SAYING HIS BILL HAS HELP FOR THOSE PEOPLE..
D’Allesandro
12 - 15 sec “Problem gambling is a problem. I admit that. But you have that even without the machines at Rockingham Park. We have some money in our bill to take care of problem gambling because we recognize the fact a certain percentage of people are problem gamblers and that’s with or without the machines.”
The Senate passed A SIMILAR GAMBLING BILL IN THE LAST SESSION (this past spring??)BUT it NEVER GOT TO THE HOUSE.
And GOVERNOR BENSON has threatened a VETO.
So SENATE BILL 117 IS FACING LARGE ROADBLOCKS AHEAD.
MEANWHILE some gambling is still allowed.
Bettors wager about 300 thousand dollars a day THROUGH OFF-TRACK BETTING ON RACES RUN AT ROCKINGHAM.
But THE TRACK’S General Manager, Ed Callahan, says OFF-TRACK BETTING AND LIVE HARNESS RACING simply AREN’T ENOUGH TO KEEP THE TRACK’S DOORS OPEN.
He says the _____ old New Hampshire institution needs something the voters and their representatives are unwilling to give.
Ed Callahan
23 - 7 sec “We are still here alive and operating. But we realize if video lottery doesn’t pass, we’ve got to do something else.”
This years racing season, perhaps one of Rockingham’s last, continues thru________
FOR NHPR NEWS, I’M JIM JEANNOTTE.
