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Bangor Weighs Moving Horse Racing Away From Bass Park

A.J. Higgins
/
Maine Public
Harness racing at Bass Park in Bangor recently.

Horses have been racing at Bangor’s Bass Park for nearly 135 years, but the sport’s future venue could be called into question if the Bangor City Council adopts the recommendations of a citizens advisory board.

The panel of local residents and business leaders wants the city to initiate some long-range planning for the 80-acre Bass Park complex, which may not include harness racing.

Joseph Parker Bass, a former newspaper editor and state lawmaker, bequeathed the 80-acre parcel to the city in 1919 after organizing the Eastern Maine Fair, which included horse racing. The track has always been in close proximity to the three Bangor auditoriums that have anchored the complex for more than a century.

But as the area has become more developed, parking and traffic congestion have become issues. And some are asking questions.

“For the next 10, 15 or 20 years and longer, what is the highest and best use of the Bass Park complex?” says Miles Theeman, the chair of the Cross Insurance Center Advisory Board that is currently weighing the need for a long-range study on the future development of Bass Park. “So I think that you need to take into consideration everything that’s going on there now, and should we have a state fair and is that the best place for it? Should we have harness racing and is that the best place for it?”

For the horsemen, jockeys and the dwindling numbers of spectators who have shown up this year at Bangor Raceway to attend one or more of the 54 scheduled race dates, any talk related to a potential change of venue for Bangor Raceway ratchets up the anxiety.

“Well it would be hurtful for our industry,” says horseman Michael Hitchcock, who races at Bangor.

Hitchcock says the future of the sport at Bass Park should not rest on traffic issues alone.

“It doesn’t just hurt us as horsemen, it hurts other entities that are mixed up in the business. It would be great if we could just stay here. I mean we’ve been here so long and we kind of feel like a fixture here, so it would be nice if we could just stay here.”

Any change in the racing program at Bass Park would also affect the Hollywood Casino and Raceway, a commercial gaming facility that was created in 2003 as the result of a citizen initiative. At the time, the creation of a racino, combining racing and slot machines, was touted as the best hope for preserving Maine’s harness racing industry, by allocating portions of slots revenues to the sport.

In fact, the framers of the initiative were so intent on linking slots to horse racing that they agreed to a provision of the law requiring the racino to be located within 2,000 feet of the track. Hollywood Casino’s state gambling license is currently contingent on that connection.

City Solicitor Norm Heitmann says the issue could be resolved by the Maine Legislature.

“One of two things would have to happen at the legislative level, and that is to amend the law and no longer require that one have a harness racing license in Bangor to have the casino in Bangor, or that they no longer need to be within 2,000 feet and then, in theory, one could simply relocate the track,” he says.

And Heitmann dismisses any notion that the city would be prohibited by restrictions in the Bass will, explaining that the last Bass heir has agreed to release the city from any of its obligations under the will as long as the Bass name remains attached to the park.

Whatever happens to racing at Bass Park, there’s no question that the industry is struggling. According to an analysis from the University of Southern Maine, the sport has experienced a revenue drop of more than 50 percent over the last 15 years.

Fred Weston from Dover-Foxcroft has been spent a good portion of his 88 years playing the ponies in Bangor. He says he’d like to think that the Queen City’s track will always be at Bass Park.

“I’d like to see it stay as it is, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a money deal; they’re looking for more income probably,” he says. “I just don’t think that the younger crowd goes to horse racing. Right now, to me, it’s kind of a dying sport.”

Bangor Mayor Joseph Baldacci and other council members says Mainers have been well-served by Bass Park’s historic relationship with harness racing. Still, they say a strategic plan for the facility’s future may be an idea whose time has come.