JC / Railbird

Suffolk Downs Archive

Thin Hope

Former Massachusetts governor Paul Cellucci recently resigned as ambassador to Canada after nearly four years of service to join Magna as the vice president of corporate development (Thoroughbred Times). The Boston Herald reports that this development has some Suffolk Downs owners and trainers hoping that Cellucci will rescue the endangered track by convincing Magna to buy it:

“I am looking at Mr. Cellucci as being someone who could be the right person, at the right place, at the right time to bring a fresh breath of air to thoroughbred racing,” said Anthony Spadea Jr., who owns a stable of horses that race at Suffolk….

Bill Lagorio, a Suffolk horseman, wants Cellucci to sell his new boss at Magna, Austrian-immigrant-turned-business-tycoon Frank Stronach, on adding Suffolk to his empire.

“It’s a great track for Stronach,” Lagorio said, citing the money the gambling chief could make “resurrecting this track and making it a showplace.”

I don’t remember Cellucci as much of a friend to horse racing during his brief governership. That he’s being put forward as a possible savior can be taken as a sign of how desperate Suffolk’s situation has become.

Posted in Suffolk Downs on March 20, 2005

MassCap Set for June 18

Yesterday brought welcome news, a reminder that spring is coming and Massachusetts’ long horseless season is coming to an end: Suffolk Downs announced its 2005 stakes schedule. The $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap (Gr. II) will be run on June 18, along with the $200,000 James B. Moseley Breeders’ Cup. Last year’s MassCap was won by Offlee Wild, who’s running this weekend for the first time since that race in the Campbell at Laurel Park. No stakes are scheduled for the meet’s final two months, which has been the situation for the past couple of years, although in both 2004 and 2003, some money was found late in the meet to run a couple of stakes races for state-breds. Perhaps the same will happen this year. Suffolk’s barns open on March 16, and live racing begins on April 30. I can hardly wait.

Posted in Suffolk Downs on February 19, 2005

Another Proposal

The CEO of Harrah’s Entertainment urged business leaders and politicians to bring casinos to Massachusetts in a speech made on Thursday. Gary Loveman said that “Harrah’s would like to build casinos in the state, possibly on the Suffolk Downs racetrack campus, which he said has enough space for a hotel and entertainment facility.” Casinos in Massachusetts aren’t too likely — the state is “desperately dependent” on the $800 million the state lottery brings in and legislators don’t want any competition for the revenue, but this article is about yet another proposal for developing the Suffolk Downs land. The Celtics are talking about the site, and real estate development groups, and now this guy, all of which says to me that the feeling of area business leaders is that Suffolk’s days are numbered. With all this talk flying about, how much longer will Boston have a racetrack? Woe to the New England racing fan! (Boston Globe)

Posted in Suffolk Downs on January 21, 2005

Developing Suffolk

There have been ominous rumblings about the future of Suffolk Downs in the local press recently — an article hinting at the possibility of more commercial development on land owned by the track appeared in the Boston Globe two weeks ago and a couple of stories in the Herald have mentioned the Celtics are considering Suffolk as a site for their new arena — but nothing so alarming as what the Globe reported this morning:
“Steven Roth, the tough, entrepreneurial chief executive of giant Vornado Realty Trust, has his sights set on Boston’s Suffolk Downs. And it is a better bet than any you could place at the struggling track that the opportunity he sees is not in a bunch of old men shouting at a TV screen and betting two bucks on a race at Aqueduct.
“Suffolk Downs is a dying business, and has been for years. But make no mistake: There is value there, and the smart money is lining up.
“Vornado, a New York real estate investment trust with a market value of $9 billion, has launched a tender offer seeking to buy the shares of Suffolk Downs’s constantly warring stockholders.”
Live racing is scheduled to begin in April, and as a New England racing fan, I hope it’s not the last year. If Suffolk Downs is sold for development, it effectively means the end of the sport not just in Boston, but in the region.

Posted in Suffolk Downs on January 14, 2005