ELMONT, N.Y. -- New York racing officials and horsemen are now trying to do what the late Frank De Francis accomplished in Maryland 10 years ago -- get the state to reduce its share of the betting dollar and channel about $20 million a year into bigger racing purses.
Marylanders who think their horse racing game is in trouble should have been in the press box at Belmont Park last week and heard comments from horsemen who think New York racing is in dire straits, citing some foreboding statistics.
According to a statement released by the horsemen, total purses in New York have declined 10 percent in the past 10 years, compared to 60 to 110 percent jumps in Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, California and Kentucky.
In the meantime, the number of licensed New York owners has decreased from 4,500 in 1989 to less than 1,600 in 1993. Owners pay about $150 million yearly in training expenses, but race for about $80 million in purses. For the second straight year there will be fewer than 1,000 foals born in the state. By comparison, Maryland has about a 1,500-member foal crop.
An impressive array of trainers, including Hall of Famers Mack Miller and Scotty Schulhofer and such well-known horsemen as Shug McGaughey, Bill Mott and P. G. Johnson, told reporters that New York racing is losing horses and owners because expenses are too high and purses too low.
Miller said new people can't be enticed into the game "because it costs too much. A lot of my old friends are in debt and starving to death. They just don't get the horses to train anymore. This is something I worry about a great deal."
A revived circuit in Kentucky -- led by Churchill Downs, Keeneland Race Course and Turfway Park, where training costs are lower and purses competitive with New York -- also is luring away owners.
"Everybody has been reading about short fields," Johnson said. "Well, it used to be that New York horsemen thought they could go to California or New Jersey. But the tracks in California are hard as concrete and the purses in New Jersey aren't that great. The option now is Churchill Downs."
Johnson said New York owners can race in the spring and fall at Churchill and Keeneland and "then go where they want to in the winter, like Florida. Daily training rates are $50 a day in Kentucky compared to $75 a day in New York and purses are just as good."
"The balance is shifting away from New York to Churchill, something I didn't think could ever happen when I was training there 10 years ago," Mott said.
McGaughey added that since Turfway Park has raised purses "owners and trainers that used to flock to New York in the winter now stay at Turfway."
The Kentucky circuit has grown stronger because the tracks now operate a series of year-round simulcast outlets led by Churchill's Sport Spectrum complex in Louisville. The next item to boost revenues will be the addition of full-card simulcasts from out-of-state tracks, similar to the program Maryland tracks adopted last year.
The New York horse racing industry, including owners' and breeders' groups and the New York Racing Association, is now united and is lobbying for two bills that have been introduced in the state legislature.
The first bill would lower the current state takeout from 4.75 percent to 3.75 percent. The 1 percent difference, or about $20 million annually, would go to purses.
The second bill would eradicate a sales and use tax which places an 8 percent surcharge on the purchase price of horses running in the state more than four times.
"If an owner buys a horse in Kentucky for $1 million and runs him more than four times in New York, he has to pay an 8 percent tax on that horse," McGaughey said. The tax, the horsemen said, "is an albatross that racing needs to shed."
De Francis' Va. track in jeopardy
Although Maryland track operator Joe De Francis thought his plan for a combined Maryland-Virginia circuit was well-received by Virginia racing commissioners during three days of hearings last week, it is quite possible that he will have to withdraw his application to build a racetrack in Loudoun County, Va.
Residents of the county who don't want the track have gone to court and have set an Aug. 2 referendum to try to bar pari-mutuel betting in their jurisdiction.
De Francis' legal attempts to block the referendum have failed and it now appears likely the Aug. 2 vote will be held. De Francis' chances of winning the referendum are considered poor, although he told the commissioners he will mount a public relations drive to try to win the special election.
The racing commissioners could void the referendum by awarding a Virginia license to one of six applicants, including De Francis, before Aug. 2. But commission chairman John Shenefield said last week that board members are likely to take the full 90 days -- or until Sept. 28 -- to make up their minds.
If De Francis loses the Loudoun site, his only alternative to be involved in building a Virginia track would be his alignment with the Stansley Management group's proposal for a track in New Kent County near Richmond.
De Francis would manage the thoroughbred meet at the Stansley track. That means if Stansley wins the license, the Maryland tracks will shut down in the summer and racing will be conducted in Richmond. Local horsemen will have to ship there instead of the shorter commute to Loudoun County.
De Francis said the Stansley application was bolstered at the hearings by the testimony of Norman I. Barron, former president of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, Inc., who advocated a combined Maryland-Virginia circuit.
Heard at the Belmont
Among the many comments heard last week at Belmont Park were:
* Triple Crown Productions will hold a board meeting on June 22 at Hollywood Park to discuss this year's Triple Crown. But De Francis' idea of re-establishing an incentive bonus for horses that start in all three races will meet resistance. Instead, some members of the committee would like to see each track put up a $1 million purse for its Triple Crown race.
* The grandstand at Belmont Park is so big that if it were tilted onto one end, it would be as tall as the Empire State Building
* Jeff Lukas is expected to start back to work part-time at his father's barn at Santa Anita Park in late June and could be working full time by the fall championship races and Breeders' Cup. Lukas is recovering from severe injuries suffered when Tabasco Cat trampled him last December.
* Mott, who has trained horses for Sheik Mohammed Al Maktoum for several years and started his colt, Amathos, in the Belmont, said he has never personally met or talked to the sheik.
"I deal with him through his racing managers," Mott said. "But maybe if I train a Belmont winner for him, he'll give me a phone call."