The attorney for the proposed Colonial Downs racetrack near Richmond told the Virginia Racing Commission earlier this week that construction of the planned $40 million facility will be delayed until a lawsuit filed by a losing applicant for the track franchise is settled.
"Prospective bondholders, investors, bankers and other third parties will be unwilling to risk an investment until the appeal is resolved," L. Charles Long Jr., attorney for Colonial Downs' operator, Arnold Stansley, told the commissioners.
In an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Long was quoted as saying construction of the track can't start until $30 million in bonds are sold. Management will continue to clear land at the New Kent County site until March, but after that all work could stop until the legal matter is resolved.
James Wilson's suit, alleging improprieties by the commission in its decision-making, was filed in Richmond circuit court last week. The commission is expected to file its reply to the suit next week. After that, the court will set a hearing date. The matter could be tied up in the legal system for months.
Any subsequent appeal could be made to the Virginia Supreme Court, delaying construction even further.
Wilson's suit has earned the ire of Virginia commission chairman John Shenefield, an antitrust lawyer who recently was appointed by Virginia Gov. George Allen Jr. to another five-year term.
"I want you to know, and I want your client to know, that this commission worked very hard in this decision," Shenefield told Wilson's lawyer, Lawrence H. Framme III, at the commission's monthly meeting Wednesday. "The imputation in your papers that something improper happened is completely wrong."
Jockeys, tracks meet today
Representatives of the Jockeys' Guild and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, composed of most of the nation's racetracks, will meet at TRA offices in New York today to try to resolve differences over how to pay for the jockeys' health and pension benefits package.
In a conference call Tuesday, the executive board of the Jockeys' Guild voted "not to settle for anything less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the handle, or its equivalent, going into the jockeys' fund [from member TRA tracks]," said local guild manager Jimmy Edwards.
Horsemen, tracks closer
Local horsemen who want a contract stipulating approval by its members of the Laurel/Pimlico condition book and yearly stakes schedule with track management are getting "real close to an agreement," Jerry Robb, chairman of the Purse and Contract Committee of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said after the groups met at Laurel Park last night.
Robb said his committee and track officials have resolved all differences concerning the condition book, which is a bimonthly printed schedule of races, but still have to negotiate terms of a yearly stakes schedule.
The main issue is the amount of money annually allotted to stakes races. The horsemen want a cap of 17 percent on stakes, claiming management has been allocating about 21 percent to the added-money races.
"What we're after is more balance in the purse distribution," Robb said.
He added that as long as progress is being made in the talks and the goal of reaching a written agreement with management is in sight, "then there is no threat that we'll exercise our right and end the track's simulcasting program."