Live racing coming soon to Rosecroft?

By: Liz Farmer | Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC | 07/07/11 10:53 AM

Live horse racing may soon be back on it's way to Prince George's County's Rosecroft Raceway after a more than three year drought. The track's new owner, Penn National Gaming, was conditionally awarded a racing license this week by the Maryland Racing Commission.

Under the conditions set forth by the commission, Penn National, which bought the track out of bankruptcy earlier this year, must guarantee the track’s operations through 2012. Rosecroft must host 20 live racing meets through the end of this year and 54 in 2012. Under those conditions, racing can return to Prince George’s County as soon as August 1.

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The fall of horse racing: is more really, well, more?

By: Liz Farmer 05/20/11 1:08 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC

It's a tough question for horse racing enthusiasts: is subsidizing Maryland racing just ignoring the real issue? Sure we all love those iconic images from horse racing's heyday when tracks were the hot place to be and the clubhouse at Pimlico in Baltimore was teeming with society's elites.

But those days are long gone. Like decades ago long gone. Yet the fight to preserve the sport is still strong — in today's Washington Examiner story about Maryland racing's increasing reliance on other gambling, breeders say the sport needs a full season to keep horse farms here.

Horse farms are also good for tourism and a part of Maryland's proud history. Heck, the Maryland Jockey Club (founded in 1743) is older than the state itself. But even people who slept most of their way through Economics 101 can tell you that without demand, supply should dwindle.

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Maryland horse racing gambles on slots

By: Liz Farmer 05/19/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC

Saturday's Preakness Stakes highlights a Maryland

horse racing tradition in precarious transition, as an industry that long opposed other forms of gambling becomes dependent on its competition for survival.

Maryland horse racing isn't alone in its deepening reliance on other gambling to boost the payouts at racetracks. Tracks in Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have been buoyed by slot machine profits for years and, more recently, table game revenue. Even Churchill Downs, home of the hallowed Kentucky Derby, is trying to bring slots to the track.

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Mythology lesson, Preakness style

By: Liz Farmer 04/14/11 10:15 AM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC

We've all had our fun with Kegasus, the half-man, half-horse, beer-chugging mascot of the Preakness Stakes Infieldfest this year. But here's a fun (and by fun, we mean dorky) fact: the actual mythological creature Pegasus wasn't half-man, half-horse. That's a centaur. Oops!

Turns out the ad brains at Elevation Ltd. responsible for the controversial campaign actually do know the difference between a pegasus (the winged horse) and a centaur.

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Preakness promoters wooing back drinkers - er, crowds

By: Liz Farmer 03/30/11 5:18 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC

The advertising brains at Preakness have drummed up a doosey this year. In a move that seems like a disproportionate apology for banning outside beverages in the infamous infield a few years ago, promoters are introducing a new mascot for the infield this year: Kegasus.

Half-man, half-horse, this lengendary figure (whose resume includes posing for romance novel covers and starring in an Old Spice television commercial) is sworn to return the Preakness infield to the joyous drunkfest so enjoyed by under-aged college kids the world over.

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