Laurel Park

Cordish lawyers assail validity of petition signatures

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business

ANNAPOLIS—A Cordish Cos. subsidiary began its exhaustive closing argument Thursday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in an effort to show that the county elections board erroneously approved a petition to put the company’s planned slots casino to a vote this fall.

At issue are the 22,967 signatures validated by the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections out of 40,408 collected during the petition drive led by casino opponents, including the Maryland Jockey Club, this spring. The casino is to be located near the Arundel Mills mall and is planned by Baltimore developer David Cordish.

Cordish subsidiary PPE Casino Resorts Maryland LLC is suing the county elections board, challenging the process by which the petition signatures were verified.

Arundel casino foes say petition drive disrupted

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Opponents of Baltimore developer David Cordish’s proposed slots casino at Arundel Mills mall claim they’ve found a connection between The Cordish Cos. and the people who they say disrupted their petition signature-gathering efforts this winter.

In an affidavit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, a private investigator said a company affiliated with Cordish Cos. hired a woman to disrupt opponents’ eventually successful petition drive to put the casino’s slots zoning up to a county-wide vote this fall.

An attorney for Cordish said his client denies the allegations.

The affidavit was filed last Friday by the Annapolis law firm Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC, which represents opponents of the casino including the citizens group Stop Slots at Arundel Mills and the Maryland Jockey Club. The latter operates Laurel and Pimlico race tracks.

A savior for state’s racing industry?

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Penn National Gaming’s new stake in the Maryland racing scene could be a saving grace for the sport that’s been on the decline in this state for the last decade — but the deal’s impact will depend on whether the company can bring slots to Laurel Park.

 “They’re a very financially stable company and they have a history in racing,” said Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas. “I think the future for racing looks better than it has in a long, long time.”

After more than a year of operating in bankruptcy, Magna Entertainment Corp. transferred the jockey club (which operates Laurel and Pimlico Race Course) to Ontario-based MI Developments Inc., its parent company. On Friday, MID announced a deal in which Penn National, known in the industry as one of the pioneers of race track casinos, would acquire an interest in the jockey club.

Md. Racing Commission approves transfer of Laurel and Pimlico

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

MI Developments consultant Ed Hannah (left), CEO Dennis Mills (center) and Chief Financial Officer Rocco Liscio testify Thursday before the Maryland Racing Commission.

The Maryland Racing Commission Thursday approved the transfer of Laurel and Pimlico race tracks to MI Developments Inc., whose CEO committed to bringing the businesses to a break-even status within two years.

The approval was issued three days after a bankruptcy judge gave approval of Ontario-based Magna Entertainment Corp.’s reorganization plan that includes the transfer of five of its tracks and other assets to MID, its parent company, in exchange for the payment of debts and settlements.

CEO Dennis Mills said after the commission meeting, which was held at the Pimlico Race Course clubhouse and overlooked preparations being made for the 135th Preakness Stakes, he hoped to bring the properties to financial solvency quickly.

“Two years is the max, but we want to get [them] to break-even within months,” he said.

Judge OKs transfer of Laurel and Pimlico

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

WILMINGTON, Del. — A judge Monday approved Magna Entertainment Corp.’s reorganization plan, which includes the transfer of Maryland’s race tracks to parent company MI Developments Inc.

That means that by the time the Preakness Stakes is run on May 15, Pimlico Race Course will be under new ownership for the first time in nearly eight years.

MID hopes to take ownership of five tracks, including Laurel Park and Pimlico in Maryland, by Friday night pending gaming licensing approval in Florida, according Magna attorney Brian Rosen.

Rosen said after the Monday hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that Magna would agree to the language changes in the track’s confirmation plan outlined in Judge Mary F. Walrath’s ruling.

“We’re all going to get it done,” said Rosen, when asked how fast Magna could work to get the necessary changes by the end of the week.

Penn National Gaming could run Laurel slots

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

If slots were to come to Laurel Park, prospective owner MI Developments Inc. would like to have Penn National Gaming operate the casino.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Testimony during Thursday’s hearing to confirm Magna Entertainment Corp.’s reorganization plan for Maryland’s race tracks revealed more details on the company’s initial efforts to sell its assets and what could be in store for Laurel Park.

If Magna’s plan to transfer assets to parent MI Developments Inc. is approved, the future could include Penn National Gaming operating slots at Laurel Park — if the track succeeds in obtaining a gaming license.

“MI Developments has plans to have Penn National step in for the Maryland Jockey Club,” said Marc D. Puntis, managing director of investment banking firm Miller Buckfire & Co., which manages Magna assets.

The jockey club operates Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and Bowie Training Center and is owned by Magna. MID is slated to take on a large percentage of Magna’s portfolio, including the Maryland properties, Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita Park in California and Gulfstream Park in Florida.

William B. Bayne, testifying on behalf of equity shareholders objecting to Magna’s plan, said that in his conversations with MID Chairman Frank Stronach, Penn National would be a majority interest holder in gaming.

Parent company reaches agreement to buy Laurel, Pimlico before auction


By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

To obtain Pimlico Race Course and the rest of Magna’s Maryland assets, MI Developments will pay out about $114 million, including $89 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Magna’s unsecured creditors committee.Maryland’s race tracks have again been yanked off the auction block — this time because their owner has reached an agreement to sell them to its parent company.

Ontario-based Magna Entertainment Corp. on Tuesday notified the six parties who were to bid on the properties, which include Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, that Thursday’s auction was canceled.

Magna parent MI Developments will pay $89 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Magna’s unsecured creditors committee. That money will be used to pay general unsecured claims against Magna.

MID also will pay about $13 million to cover secured claims of PNC Bank, about $6 million for holders of unsecured claims against the Maryland Jockey Club and $5 million to the former owners of Laurel Park and Pimlico.

Arundel Mills slots opponents now suing Cordish

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Opponents of a planned slots casino near Arundel Mills are striking back against a lawsuit filed by the developer that claims their work to fight his project was done illegally.

Stop Slots at Arundel Mills, Citizens Against Slots at the Mall, the Maryland Jockey Club and FieldWorks LLC filed motions in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Tuesday to intervene in the suit (PPE Casino Resorts Maryland LLC, et al. v. Anne Arundel County Board of Supervisors of Elections).

The group and individual representatives also filed an “anti-SLAPP” motion, referring to the Maryland SLAPP suit statute that prohibits meritless suits brought by large private interests to deter citizens from exercising their political or legal rights. (SLAPP is an acronym that stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.)

Foes of slots at Arundel Mills get enough signatures

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

A coalition formed to halt the state’s largest planned slots development near the Arundel Mills mall has succeeded in its campaign to let county voters decide whether to allow the casino to go forward.

According to its Web site, the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections has validated more than the required 18,790 petition signatures to get the measure on the ballot this November. Voters will now decide whether the County Council should have allowed zoning for the slots site planned by Baltimore developer David Cordish.

As of Thursday, 19,054 signatures have been accepted. Several thousand more signatures are still being processed by the election board.

Rob Annicelli, president of the citizens group Stop Slots at Arundel Mills, called the referendum a “daunting task,” but said in a statement he expects several thousand more signatures to be validated by the board.

A hand-wringing wait over the future of Magna’s Md. tracks

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

When the parent of Maryland’s thoroughbred racetracks filed for bankruptcy and announced it would sell its Maryland properties, it sent a wave of uncertainty, fear and frustration though the state’s horse racing community.

Exactly one year later, some say it’s gotten messier.

Since it filed for bankruptcy on March 5, 2009, Ontario-based Magna Entertainment Corp. placed Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and Bowie Training Center on the auction block, took them off last spring, then put them up back up for auction again last fall.

The company has delayed its Maryland assets auction three times in the last two months, with the latest reschedule — March 25 — adding to the feeling of instability.

It’s been a hand-wringing wait for those on the sidelines.

Weather has cost Laurel Park its big days

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

A lone bettor, at Laurel Park for simulcasting Tuesday, gets his ticket from an automated teller booth. The track has lost five racing days to the weather.

With an already declining business during its winter meet, Laurel Park could be facing its worst season in decades after snowstorms have forced track officials to cancel five racing days so far.

The last time Laurel lost five racing days in a meeting was during 2003, when snow caused five cards to be canceled during February.

This year, Laurel Park was closed on Jan. 30 and last weekend, and this week officials announced that Wednesday’s and Thursday cards would be canceled.

Two of those cancellations have been Saturdays, which are by far the busiest wagering days of the week. And with another storm looming, a cancellation this weekend isn’t out of the question either. That means three out of the 15 Saturdays on the track’s racing calendar could be lost.

Maryland Jockey Club submits petition against Arundel Mills slots

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

A coalition formed to halt the state’s largest planned slots development near the Arundel Mills mall says it has succeeded in its petition drive to allow county voters to decide whether to allow the casino to go forward.

The petitioners, led by the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates the Laurel Park race track, said in a news release that they had submitted 23,702 signatures in support of a referendum to the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections Thursday afternoon.

That number far exceeds the 9,395 signatures that were needed by Friday and handily beats the 18,790 signatures required to place the zoning ordinance on the ballot in November.

The Jockey Club was supported by the citizens group Stop Slots at Arundel Mills. It also hired Chicago-based Fieldworks Inc. to help collect signatures.

Auction for Laurel, Pimlico is pushed back to Feb. 10


By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

The auction of Maryland’s thoroughbred race tracks has been delayed for the second time, and is now scheduled for three months before the state’s biggest racing day of the year — the Preakness Stakes.

The fate of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park is now scheduled to be decided Feb. 10, according to a motion to delay the auction filed by Magna Entertainment Corp., the company that owns the tracks.

Magna’s attorneys did not give a reason for the delay in the filing and did not return requests for comment.

Judge: No slots profit for De Francis

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Joseph De Francis is one of the bidders for Magna’s Maryland properties. WILMINGTON, Del. — The former owner of Laurel Park lost his bid Tuesday to keep alive an agreement that would grant him a cut of the proceeds if the race track gets slots.

Now the only way Joseph De Francis, who sold Maryland’s thoroughbred race tracks to Magna Entertainment Corp. in 2002, stands to gain from gaming at Laurel is if he is the winning bidder on the track at its bankruptcy auction this month.

That auction was pushed back to Jan. 21 at the request of Magna. An attorney for the Ontario-based company said at Tuesday’s hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that Magna wants more time to reach a preliminary agreement with one of the six qualified bidders for its Maryland properties.

Magna would then share that preliminary agreement with Maryland, to give the state the option of exercising its right of first refusal, and the other five bidders.

The auction was originally scheduled for Friday.

He said, he said: Laurel, Cordish officials trade charges

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Laurel Park officials laid out their case Thursday that their track is better positioned to get a slots facility up and running than the proposed slots site up the road near Arundel Mills, but others say the track has a long way to go — with or without a slots license.

Tom Chuckas, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, disputed the idea that the track is not a viable alternative to the Arundel Mills site. Since 2003, he said, track officials have been working on getting the permits that are required to build a slots facility there.

He said all that’s left is getting a license to operate slots, which could be done within a year if the application process is opened up again.

Laurel Park presents its case for slots

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer

Laurel Park officials laid out their case Thursday that their track is better positioned to get a slots facility up and running than the proposed slots site up the road near Arundel Mills — with or without a slots operator license.

Tom Chuckas, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, disputed the idea that the track is not a viable alternative to the Arundel Mills site. Since 2003, he said, track officials have been working on getting the permits that are required to build a slots facility.

Cordish, De Francis submit bids for Md. tracks

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer 

Baltimore developer David Cordish and former track owner Joseph De Francis are among a handful of bidders for Maryland’s two thoroughbred tracks up for auction next month.

Cordish confirmed in an e-mail Monday morning he had submitted a bid for Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course last week. The tracks are owned by the Magna Entertainment Corp., a Canadian company that declared bankruptcy in March.

Jonathan Cordish, vice president of The Cordish Cos., said Cordish’s bid does not include a plan to bring slots to Laurel Park. Cordish won a bid to build a slots casino near Arundel Mills, but the company’s plans are still subject to zoning approval by the Anne Arundel County Council. The council is schedule to take that vote on Dec. 21.

Jan. 8 set for auction of Pimlico and Laurel Park tracks

Brian S. Rosen (left), the attorney for Magna, after a hearing in Delaware this year.A bankruptcy judge has approved Jan. 8 for the auction of Maryland’s thoroughbred race tracks, and a former owner could be among the potential bidders for the properties.

Joseph De Francis, whose family sold controlling interest in Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course to Magna Entertainment Corp. in 2002, objected through his attorney to the three-month timetable of the proposed bidding process and auction.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware ruled in favor of Magna’s proposal at a hearing Wednesday morning. Bids are due Nov. 2 and the auction will be held Jan. 8.

An attorney for Magna, which filed for bankruptcy in March, said De Francis had been in touch with the Ontario-based company for several months about his interest in the tracks.

“But I don’t think [his proposals] had much substance and we look forward to selling for more real money,” Brian S. Rosen said after the hearing. Rosen added it was likely that De Francis would submit a bid in November.

De Francis said he was “disappointed” by that characterization.