Preakness-winning and eight-time Maryland Million-winning trainer Bill Boniface has spent the past six months telling anyone who will listen about an idea to improve the Maryland Fund.

Boniface said, I guarantee you it will help the breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys and the race track. His idea is to form a Maryland Thoroughbred Development Fund, patterned after the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, which adds breeders funds to the purse money available for Kentucky-breds. Under the Boniface plan, the current Maryland Fund owner bonus program would be discontinued.

The estimated $800,000 currently available for owner bonuses would be combined with purse money (and perhaps some type of purse subsidy from the state legislature) to provide funding to begin the program. All totaled, this year there might be $1.5 million available, which is less than ideal but enough to get the wheels rolling.

My goal is to raise $4 million for the MTDF, said Boniface. Then we can add 30 percent to all races except stakes. Currently, our maiden races have a purse of $25,000; if you add our $8,300 bonus on top and if it was won by a Maryland-bred then the purse is $33,300. This step will help our racing program remain competitive.

Currently, Maryland Fund owner’s bonus checks are paid directly to the owner, who receives the dividend within 30 days after the end of each meet. The owner receives 100 percent of the bonus, unlike purse money, of which a percentage goes to the trainer and jockey.

Little fanfare is made when the checks are mailed or received. Quietly, the program has achieved some of its goals. However, if the same funds were used as purse enhancements in the condition book, more people might participate in our program. If trainers and jockeys shared the money, perhaps the program would be better appreciated. To implement such a change will require consensus among MHBA members.

A good healthy dialogue over the future of the Maryland Fund might provide a forum for other timely ideas as well. After reaching accord we would then request the Racing Commission to revise the Maryland Fund rules. One suggestion I have received is to poll our members to see how they feel. Please write or e-mail your comments (pro or con) to the MHBA website (www.mdhorsebreeders.com). By polling our members electronically, we can ensure nearly instantaneous debate. My hope is order will follow chaos. The Maryland Fund’s biggest problem is its size.

We need and deserve a larger, more lucrative Fund. Maryland-breds have won some of the world’s most prestigious races. As MHBA president, my biggest priority is to grow our Fund any way we can. This year it is projected to be about $4.7 million, down slightly from 2001 when it was nearly $4.8 million. Our peak was slightly more than $5 million in 2000Ñlargely because of approximately $800,000 in state grant money.

With Maryland parimutuel handle numbers stagnating, zero growth in new off-track betting facilities and no telephone account wagering (unless there is a state subsidy to our purse account) our Fund will remain, at best, at its current level. How do we grow the Maryland Fund pie? What can breeders do to enact a change to stir us from our current economic doldrums? The consensus is VLTs.

Twice recently I’ve traveled to Charles Town to watch one of my horses run. Seeing the transformation made a believer out of me. The once moribund, nearly bankrupt, track is now a bustling, happening place. Construction on a five-story 2,000-car parking garage and convention center is rapidly progressing. An additional 1,500 slot machines are being installed later this year. In 1996, West Virginia’s registered foal crop numbered 174; its breeding fund had a total of $496,000 available for distribution.

Five years later, in 2001, the foal crop more than doubled, to 399, and the fund hit a record high of $4.3 million. (The leading bonus-check recipient gleaned a lump sum of nearly $500,000.) About 10,000 people were at Charles Town last Saturday night. Not everyone was playing the slots. Every table in the clubhouse dining room was full.

The parimutuel handle for Saturday was over $1 million. The purses in most races were worth more than the horses competing. My filly, running for a $12,500 tag, was competing for a purse of $15,900. Bottom level $2,500 claimers were running for $6,800 purses. A road trip for members of our state legislature should be required! It would be an eye-opener and reality check for anyone doubting the marriage of VLTs and horse racing.

Most of the cars in the parking lot were from out-of-state; too many with Maryland license plates. Every person crossing state lines to gamble in West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey is costing our state a small fortune in lost revenue. My guess is that slot machine legislation will begin in earnest following the gubernatorial election in November. By this time next year, a Maryland gaming bill will be moving through Annapolis.

What will be the future of the racing industry in this game of chance? Will it be race tracks only for slot locations? What other sites are possible? Who will be in control? Will the race tracks be in the center or on the outside? Our success depends upon our ability to coalesce, mobilize and utilize our resources. And that brings us back to Bill Boniface’s plan. Marylanders have always rewarded excellence.

The Maryland-bred owner program pays bonuses only to winners of non-restricted races. That is maiden, allowance and claiming levels of $25,000 and up. Except for stakes races, to earn a bonus of any kind, our horses must win. This survival of the fittest has caused us to continually cull and upgrade our stock. Thus Maryland horses win more than their share of races around the globe. Ours was the first breeders’ incentive program in the country, said Boniface, and now everyone else has a bigger fund.

Let’s build an upward spiral. The larger our purses, the bigger the fields. The bigger the fields, the larger the handle. The larger the handle, the bigger our Fund. People will pay more for a Maryland-bred horse if it can earn more. If it can earn more, everyone wins. By contributing Maryland Fund moneys to the purse account, we will be sharing our funds with our close counterpart, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.

After all, the memberships of the two organizations overlap significantly. Together, we have already achieved much more than either one of us could have done independently. The recently negotiated long-term racing calendar is a perfect example. Maryland is the only racing state in the Union with such a contract.

The agreement guarantees 220 days of live racing per year through the 2006 Belmont Stakes. With gaming legislation on the horizon, the timing is right to enact this change in the Maryland-bred Fund owner bonus program. Imagine having the MTDF engine fired up and rolling down the tracks when the slot machine legislation arrives at the station.

Add turbo-charged fuel to our locomotive, there is no telling how fast and far we can travel. Boniface’s goal of $4 million in the MTDF and mine of $25 million in the Maryland Fund program could become reality. Bill Boniface’s idea sounds like a winner. This is the time to give it a try.

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