Abolishing Maryland Racing Commission would serve no good purpose

Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. spoke during his campaign of his goal to “save Maryland racing.” Now industry representatives are campaigning the governor to save the Maryland Racing Commission.

Money, naturally, is the main focus of the slots debate going on in the Maryland state legislature. However, the governor’s slots legislation, unveiled on January 30, does more than offer a formula for the distribution of prospective slots revenue. It contains, among other items, a provision for the Maryland Racing Commission to be abolished and replaced with a new state agency to oversee racing, slots and the Maryland State Lottery.
On the surface that seems like a modest enough proposal, but the consequences could be far-reaching.

The racing commission recently approved Magna Entertainment Corp.’s purchase of a majority interest in Laurel Park and Pimlico, but not before extracting a promise from Magna to spend $30 million during the next three years on badly needed improvements to backstretches and racing surfaces. If the racing commission no longer exists, the future of that agreement is in doubt—along with a whole lot else.

Preserving a year-round schedule of live racing. . . overseeing improvements in Maryland’s off-track betting facilities. . . enforcing a crackdown on drug abuse on the backstretch—this is just a sampling of the issues the commission has tackled, with noteworthy success, during the past several years.

The Maryland Racing Commission, as currently constituted, is a nine-member panel that oversees both Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing. Members—all of them unpaid—are appointed by the governor to four-year terms. All of the current commission members have served at least three years, and most have been there much longer.

In stark contrast to some past eras, when the commission was dominated by political appointees who knew little (and sometimes appeared to care less) about racing, the current commissioners are by and large well-versed in horses, along with other areas of expertise that would make them an asset to any regulatory agency.

The chairman, Lou Ulman, is an attorney who breeds and races on a relatively large scale, with Dale Capuano as his trainer. Other commission members are successful businessmen, one is an accountant, another a top health care executive, and the lone woman on the commission, Ellen Moyer, is the mayor of Annapolis (as well as an ardent racing advocate with a family involvement in the business).

The governor’s plan, now before the state legislature, would create a nine-member board, two connected to the Thoroughbred industry, two Standardbred, and five citizen representatives.

Assuming that slots also are a part of the picture, the new agency would face an enormous learning curve, at a most crucial time for racing. And racing would not be its only concern.
Saving the Maryland Racing Commission is important to the industry—with or without slots.