THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 26, 1994 TAG: 9412260066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Many members of Northern Virginia's horse industry say the closing of West Virginia's Charles Town racetrack has slowed their business to a lame trot.
The shutdown two weeks ago of the financially ailing racetrack is the third recent blow to the region's horse industry. In August, Loudoun County voters rejected a racetrack proposal. Two months ago, the state's racing commission snubbed a plan for a track in Prince William County, approving instead a site near Richmond.
Now, with Charles Town gone, blacksmiths have fewer horses to shoe, feed dealers are selling less and veterinarians are trying to drum up new patients.
``I got no work,'' said Fauquier County horse trainer Willie D. Oneill, 52, who has sent most of the horses he used to train back to their owners or out to pasture.
``I'm just laying dead and feeding my horses, figuring out what to do.''
In the last eight years, the state's thoroughbred crop, a good indicator of the state's racehorse business, has dropped by more than 60 percent - to about 1,150 thoroughbreds in 1993, according to a local breeding agency.
``It's another hardship for the industry,'' said Louis Nichols, an agriculture development officer in Loudoun County. ``It's likely there will be a big economic impact.''
State agricultural economists estimate the horse industry is a $200 million-a-year business, largely centered in northern Virginia. Several industry specialists estimate that 200 to 300 Virginia thoroughbreds - about one-fourth of the state crop - regularly raced at Charles Town.
Many of those horses are now being retrained as walking or jumping horses. Others will be shipped to tracks in Pennsylvania or Delaware, the closest places where they could qualify to race.
``It's going to affect a lot of folks,'' said Mark Deane, the owner of an Upperville horse farm. ``We're all in a state of confusion now.''
John Stahlin knows that all too well. The Loudoun blacksmith used to work three days a week at Charles Town, making about half his income there.
``It's three days a week that's turned into nothing,'' said Stahlin, 48.
The 62-year-old Charles Town track, near Harpers Ferry, had long been perceived by many in the industry as an ugly little sister to Maryland's high-profile Laurel and Pimlico courses. At Charles Town, the horses were slower and the purses relatively meager.
The track is for sale, but most local horsemen and women doubt it will open in the near future.
``It filled a gap,'' Deane said. ``It wasn't a place to make a lot of money, but even a small purse is better than nothing.''
KEYWORDS: HORSE RACING by CNB