Charles Town horsemen at major crossroad

The ouster of Dick Watson, after six years as president of the Charles Town Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), is either a slap in the face of progress or a much-needed change of course, depending on your point of view.

Watson, an owner in West Virginia for some 40 years, led the Charles Town horsemen’s group through a time of unprecedented growth after the dream of video lottery terminals came true in 1997.

He was replaced in the De-cember election by Ann Hil-ton, a longtime owner/trainer, whom fellow horsemen recruited for the volunteer post.

Hilton promises a radically different management style from that which horsemen have been accustomed to over the past several years. “I believe in working by committee,” she said. “It should be a cooperative effort for all horsemen, the way it used to be with the HBPA here many years ago, in the 1980s.”

Watson agrees that failure to communicate may have been a serious flaw during his administration. “Nobody likes to lose, but I try to be realistic,” he said. “Did I do the best I could do to let the membership know what was going on? I was so tied up in the day-to-day work that I didn’t make a concerted effort to inform people about who struck John.”

Charles Town’s daily average purse distribution has risen from approximately $22,000 to a level approaching $180,000 during the expanded gaming era. To ease the growing pains—and hold off a sudden influx of out-of-state stables—Watson continually advo-cated slow and steady purse increases. Purses were raised 11 separate times over the first two years, and 10 to 12 times since then.

Never did he promote the idea of a big-league future for Charles Town. “I don’t believe we should directly compete with the Maryland tracks or Delaware Park or Monmouth. That’s not why Charles Town is here,” Watson said. “It’s here because of the real cheap horse. Not bad horses, just horses who are relatively cheap.

“I’ve always believed we should keep the bottom of the scale where it is—the $2,500 claiming price—because these horses are needed in the business. They let people get into racing. Right now the $2,500 claiming horse runs for a purse of almost $10,000 at Charles Town. That has to be an attractive proposition for a lot of people.”

Still, Watson did not envision keeping things exactly the way they were. A new seven-furlong race track—to replace the current six-furlong, 60-foot-wide oval—remains high on his wish list. “Charles Town has one of the highest breakdown rates in the entire country. The drainage is not good, and the banking is not as good as it should be,” stated Watson.

A substantial number of Charles Town horsemen do not share Watson’s point of view. They worry that a greatly improved Charles Town oval would attract still more horses to race there, making the program even more competitive and threatening the livelihood of local horsemen.

While many people balked at Watson’s goal of “a 21st century facility” for Charles Town, they were downright aghast at the way he intended to pay for it.
Yet Watson and his supporters believed they had come up with a creative plan to secure both track improvements and—addressing an even more crucial matter—the continued future of live racing.

Since Charles Town’s parent company, Penn National Gaming Inc., has “no motivation to enlarge the track” on its own, reasoned Watson, horsemen would kick in half the costs, with money from the purse account. In return, horsemen would acquire a vested interest in the track. “There were several possible scenarios,” Watson said. “There could have been a stock sale; it was never intended to be a giveaway.”

Penn National’s commitment to Charles Town’s live racing program could only be strengthened by an investment of several million dollars in physical improvements, Watson reasoned. And as business partners with the track, horsemen would have more control over their own destiny.

The Charles Town HBPA’s new regime is flatly against using purse money for track improvements. However, Hilton said the group is “talking with track management in an ongoing, cooperative way” to come up with a plan. Track management is under pressure from state environmental authorities to tear down its Shenandoah Downs training facility across the street. Upgrades to Charles Town’s back-stretch and racing surface will be a necessity when all of the training takes place at Charles Town, Hilton noted.

Meanwhile, Hilton is encouraging everyone to maintain an upbeat attitude. “I don’t like to have conflict, especially when there’s so much to be grateful for here at Charles Town,” she said.