Friday, February 3, 2012

A Local Disappointment

Dayton Daily News:
Penn National Gaming Inc.’s plan to request relocation of a thoroughbred horse racing track to Dayton has switched to a harness racing facility.
Raceway Park, a harness-racing facility in Toledo, would be relocated to Dayton, while Columbus’s Beulah Park, a thoroughbred track, would be moved to a suburb of Youngstown, Peter M. Carlino, Penn’s chairman and chief executive officer, announced Thursday in a financial statement.
“The state of Ohio has approved the placement of VLTS (video lottery terminals) at the state’s seven racetracks, and while we await the final regulatory framework, we are actively pursuing the relocation of our existing racetracks in Toledo and Grove City to Dayton and Youngstown, respectively, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory and other approvals,” Carlino said.
Penn wants to relocate the racetracks to avoid competing with its two new casinos under construction in Columbus and Toledo.
That is a disappointment to me.  Harness racing is ok, but thoroughbred racing is extremely cool.  That would leave two harness tracks within 50 miles of one another (and maybe even 30 miles).

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