December Maine racing

[Capt Lou]

Going to finals of series In tomorrow

[Wawajones]

Only 6 races today, last 3 cancelled.  2:11 and 2:14 signaled a very deep muddy track.  Might only get in 3 or 4 races Friday before it gets muddy again.  Maybe they should start at 9 am.  I see Lou did get his 10 length win in his series.

[Locked in with pace]

people are listening. 10:00 am post.

[Seamus11]

If they actually allow that place to race tomorrow.....with the horrible condition that track is in, someone should get Animal Control and discipline these idiots for animal cruelty.  Not only are MANY of these horses racing on almost zero rest and 65% approaching their 40th starts of the year, there is (2) feet of frigging mud for them to try and “race” on.  Simply DEPLORABLE !!

[Capt Lou]

Safety second again.    Thanks Karl  # brand new truck

[Wendall Tilley]

been saying he was a good claim all summer.Headstrong but how could you lose The amish would give 4 for him.Made 50000 this year good for you !!

[the double]

Shit show over for this year, hope the Gov signs the Sports betting bill into law or lets become law by ignoring same  Then work can start on a brand new racing facility,   LOL LOL :

[chief yogi]

plans in the works right now on new palace. got great management team in place at cumby. showed how to treat the on track customer, some days both customers  were happy.  what could go wrong? changing post times and days because of what? track was same shape for the last 5 weeks.

[Seamus11]

Actually drove up from Massachusetts and the Management team should be totally embarrassed... Here’s the Highlights...

- ZERO running water which meant no toilets.. men or ladies, and let me say... the porta potties had not been emptied ALL YEAR !!!
- Food??  A box of Sams Club Lays Chips and Doritos
-Drink?  A gallon of water beside a one cup coffeemaker for your pleasure
- Betting?  One teller (poor guy busted his ass with a bunch of Hillbilly derelicts screaming at him to “Hurry the F#@& Up !!”..... and one automated teller machine that wouldn’t take cash !
- The Racing??  You mean the “crawling around the track in a blistering 2:23.2 ??  Yes... Superb racing !!

The perfect ending on the day/season was the very last race where Deslandes horse skipped at the gate... and he brought it right straight to the paddock BEFORE THE 1/4 EVEN... and said” F$#@ this ... I’m done..”. Poetic justice....

[chief yogi]

exactly the wrong way to keep maines race industry going. i been saying this for ever. maine racing support from the casinos will be gone the second the fed goverment stops throwing money around. times will get tough, state will need money and even as an owner, why is the industry getting money? tracks could care less. i used to think scarborough was bad, but id love for us all to be back there. we have raced for decent money thankfully but how did we ever let the two comercial tracks get this way? fairs will never be perfect and i understand that but think about it. do bangor and cumberland want anything other than a handout for their management? i dont think so. also a big thank you for all the people who tried so hard to make the cumberland track raceable who did so without being paid track employees.

[Locked in with pace]

We raced thru December and made extra money till racing starts back up in April .

So now the big question? Was this Profitable for First Tracks or did they loose money? I thought the handle goal was to average $80,000 a day.

[chief yogi]

dont know if they were happy with their revenue.  they did come close on the 80,000 but with it all off track the revenue was likely less than what the downs made off their racing, as they had some on track. last two months the on track average was less than 2000 a day. no otb, food or drink revenue either. hard to see why they would continue to race. dont know why anyone raced their horses the last month the way the track was. yes we did have the chance to race in december.
    all in all i though it was a depressing fall meet. was ok in summer and a few people turned out then on the saturday cards. wish the best but a lot needs to improve. id love to see racing in maine for years to come.

[doug]

I love Maine. But i think harness racing is doomed here. Just not enough interest and the state is ambivalent to this once great industry. So sad.