Well, what's going on right now is Maryland racing is a whole lot of uncertainty.
I am very doubtful at this point that we'll be racing on January 1st like we always have.
You might wake up and there might be a chain on the gate saying that's it.
Party's over, no racing.
Come on, Mootie!
Come on, Mootie!
It was a circus atmosphere.
You know, before you got into the track, there would be a sidewalk full of vendors selling
everything, candy, chicken, tip sheets, everything, hollering, you know.
Laurel Park Racecourse first opened its gates in 1911. For decades, thousands of fans crowded
the grandstand to watch some of the country's best thoroughbreds round the track.
Today, most of the nearly 3,000 seats in the track's grandstand are empty, though a few
long time fans remain.
Many had hoped slots would revitalize Laurel Park, but after a long fight to get slots
at the racetrack, Laurel Park failed to secure a slots license this year.
Now, Maryland's horse industry is in jeopardy.
A lot of panic, a lot of people are scared and worried they're going to be jobless, homeless,
and it's in a bad way right now.
At this point in my life, I'm so far deep into this game.
The only thing that we can do at this point is to leave Maryland if they shut down racing.
Where are you going?
You're not running away, are you?
I have been told me all the time that my horses were my first love.
I mean, it is the only thing I've ever done my whole life.
I brought the house across the street from my parents, so literally my children can run
out the front door and run down through my parents' horse pasture, I mean, I was raised
on a horse farm right here in Maryland.
It's not that we want to leave Maryland, but at this point, you know, you have to make
a living.
I'm very angry.
I mean, the powers that be should have never let this happen, it should have never happened.
The model is broken clearly and we can't keep losing money, so we're hoping today is to
give us a little bit of breathing room to sit down with all the stakeholders and come
up with a longer-term plan that would have racing in Maryland viable for the year-round.
I think you've had enough time to breathe some life into your plan, and I think it's
inconstantable for you guys to show up here today and not have a bona fide year-round
racing plan for Maryland racing because you're taking the life blood out of Maryland racing.
We will roll up our sleeves and look for a long-term solution to the economic viability
of Maryland.
Track owners lost $7 million last year at their Maryland properties.
They proposed a shortened schedule for 2011 to cut their losses, reducing live racing
days from 146 to 47, 17 days at Laurel, and 30 at Pimlico surrounding the Preakness.
These two short meets are a 10 amount to us of no racing either.
What's the difference if we're dead shot by 100 bullets or one in the head?
We're still dead.
It makes no difference.
The proposed schedule for racing at Laurel was rejected by the commission, putting thousands
of jobs that rely on the racing industry at risk.
If they're going to close it, I wish they'd go on and say they're going to close it so
we can make some plans and figure out what we're doing with our careers.
We'll survive.
You know, I have to let some people go, we'll just downscale.
I have no plan.
Everybody keeps asking me that.
I don't really know.
I mean, I'd probably try to sell my house up here and try to, I'm thinking Florida maybe.
Behind the racetrack in an area called the Backstretch, hundreds of track workers are
worried that they'll not only lose their jobs, but also their employee housing.
John and Trisha Collins live in an efficiency on the Backstretch.
It's a day to day paycheck to paycheck right now.
I'll probably wind up with my mom just until we get something else.
Talents are limited back here after working with resources for 40 years of your life.
You know, where do you start?
Where do you start over?
When I was a kid, my father told me, you know, he says, you know, you do what you want to
do, but you know, stick with it, you know, that was his advice, you know, stick with
what you, what you really love to do, you know, and I said, dad, that's, that's what
I really want to do.
I'd like to train race horses, you know, that's, he says, well, stick with it.
It's just a bad time for racing right now.
Every thing's a recovery.
All right.
You're moving forward.
