To hear the horse breeders tell it, their livelihood is threatened if Maryland does not increase winning purses at its racetracks, as neighboring states have done with the help of slot-machine gambling.
“This is a desperate situation,” said Cynthia McGinnes, who runs Thornmar Farm in Kent County with her husband Charles. “The horse breeders are not asking for a subsidy. But without increasing what the owner of a winning horse can take home at Maryland tracks, owners will move elsewhere.
“We can?t compete here and stay in business,” added McGinnes, whose Chestertown farm once had 10 employees. Now, it?s just the two of them.
The tales of hard times in the horse industry were abundant, as owners, trainers and horse people turned out to hear Gov. Martin O?Malley promise to dedicate some of the proceeds of slots to winning purses at Maryland tracks.
“It?s not a lot of rich people,” said Don Litz, president of Maryland Stallion Station, where the event was held. To showcase the issue, Litz brought out 8-year-old Rock Slide, whom he characterized as the “leading juvenile sire” in the country. Rock Slide is expected to impregnate 104 mares this year.
“Every mare requires seven acres of agricultural land,” said Henry Holloway, owner of The Mill, a feed operation in Bel Air, reinforcing O?Malley?s argument that aiding the industry helps preserve open space. Holloway noted that 12 years ago there were 200 stallions stabled in Maryland, but now there are only 100.
Lucy Kessler, a Frederick County breeder for 20 years, said she recently “lost a good stallion” to an out-of-state farm where earnings were better. Her own horses going to auction are fetching five figures, while those from Kentucky are posting six figures.
“Slots are one way to solve the problem” and make stabling horses in Maryland more attractive, Kessler said. “We need the help now.”
She has little tolerance for “all those whining people who see gambling as such a problem,” when the state itself already runs a huge gambling operation ? the lottery and all its games.
