DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090359

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HOLLY A. HEYSER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  130 lines

COLONIAL DOWNS: LIMPING TOWARD THE FINISH LINE AS STATE DEADLINE APPROACHES, IT'S ANYONE'S BET IF THE TRACK WILL BE READY.

Virginians have been wagering on horse races with the commonwealth's blessing for 18 months now, but so far they've had to do it in smoky betting parlors in Chesapeake and Richmond, nowhere near a real horse.

That's all supposed to change Sept. 1, when the long-awaited Colonial Downs race track in New Kent must begin live racing, or else lose its state license, bringing all its gambling operations to a screeching halt.

The only problem is that the facility - a dazzling sight in architects' renderings - isn't finished. Clearly, it will be a tight race to the wire.

Compounding some people's worries is an even bigger concern: Even if the bugler does sound the call to the post at the appointed time on the first, will there be enough horses to make this thing work?

Rumors on both counts are flourishing in horse circles.

Colonial Downs won't open on time. Colonial Downs will open just to meet its deadline, then shut down. Delaware Park, a competing race track 175 miles away, will raise its purses to lure horses to Delaware instead of Virginia.

Officials from both tracks brush aside the rumors, and those from Colonial Downs swear they'll have racing on Sept. 1.

``Everybody's question is, `Is it going to be ready in time?' '' said Colonial Downs Racing Secretary Lenny Hale, who is at the Saratoga race track in New York drumming up business for Colonial Downs.

It will, he said. ``We have no choice.''

A lot is at stake.

Colonial Downs Holdings Inc. - which last week reported second-quarter earnings of 7 cents per share - is spending $58 million on the New Kent track and off-track betting centers. And patrons are lining up - box seat sections at Colonial Downs are sold out, and six of the 10 $50,000-a-year corporate suites are spoken for.

Radio stations and sports bars are giving away trips to the track. ``We're banking on them opening,'' said Rebecca Van Gosen, a regional account executive for country radio station WCMS-100.5 FM in Virginia Beach. WCMS plans to give away 20 pairs of VIP admissions packages each week beginning Friday.

Politicians and voters gave gaming a foot in the door not for gaming's sake, but for the sake of the Virginia horse industry, which lobbied for the return of pari-mutuel horse racing in the first place. (Pari-mutuel bettors wager against each other rather than against the house, as is the case in casinos.)

Without racing, Colonial Downs makes money from off-track betting, but the horse industry doesn't benefit. That's why the General Assembly set a deadline for opening.

Virginians are already reaping the rewards of gambling. During the first six months of this year alone, the two off-track betting parlors turned over nearly $1.2 million to state and local governments where the track and betting parlors are located. Chesapeake's cut of ``the handle'' - the money wagered on the simulcasted races - was $78,000.

If nothing else, Virginians are plain hungry for major league sports, and many would like to see Colonial Downs happen. It would be, proponents boast, the only major-league game in town.

But despite track officials' assurances, there are real reasons for concern. As recently as a week ago, just about all of Colonial Downs was a hard hat zone, abuzz with workers installing plasterboard, tinkering with the exposed innards of escalators and navigating through wires, mud puddles and boards scattered across concrete floors.

The dirt and turf tracks weren't finished and the grandstand was far from ready - elevators missing, stairways incomplete and not a betting window in sight. Corporate suites, which ultimately will sport leather armchairs and their own bathrooms, were little more than concrete shells.

Crews were set to work around the clock until the very last minute.

Joe De Francis, president of the Maryland Jockey Club and management consultant for Colonial Downs, said the current state of the New Kent track doesn't mean it won't open on time. ``I've helped prepare tracks for opening, and as close as a week beforehand everything seems in total disarray,'' he said. ``But it's amazing how fast things get wound up.''

O.J. Peterson, president of Colonial Downs, is also confident. Technically, he said, all he needs to start racing on the first is a finished track and an occupancy permit for just one building - even something like the Racing Commission's building in the backstretch.

Both are within reach, but Peterson said he expects Colonial Downs to be in far better shape than that come opening day. People will likely see a lot of bare dirt instead of grass, and all the barns won't be complete, but all the seating areas should be finished, he said.

The bigger issue is whether enough horses will come to sustain a vigorous 30-day thoroughbred meet - already far shorter than the 102-day meet Colonial Downs officials first promised.

One deterrent is that the turf track - the crown jewel at New Kent - definitely won't be ready for racing on opening day. If it were, horse trainers say there's little doubt Colonial Downs would be an irresistible draw.

Though difficult to maintain, turf tracks are much kinder to race horses' bodies than dirt tracks, so owners and trainers prefer them. Colonial Downs' 1 1/8-mile turf track will be the largest in the country.

But at this point, officials say the best they can hope for is that it's ready sometime before the thoroughbred meet ends on Oct. 12.

``The No. 1 thing people have said to me is that they were going to come for the turf course, and now they're not sure,'' said Mike Pearson, a Hume, Va., trainer and owner. Pearson serves on the boards of the Virginia Horsemen's Association and the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

To eliminate competition for horses between Virginia and Maryland, De Francis agreed to shut down Maryland's two tracks - Laurel Park and Pimlico - during Colonial Downs' meet. But he can't force owners to send their mounts to Colonial Downs.

It will take at least 1,200 horses to fill all the scheduled races at New Kent, assuming each horse runs twice during the 30-day meet. Hale said owners and trainers have agreed to move at least 300 or 400 horses to Colonial Downs for the meet, and others are planning to ship in their horses on race day.

But the track won't accept entries until the Friday before race day, so it's impossible at this point to say how many horses will run.

New York trainer James Bond, whose horse Will's Way recently won the prestigious Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, said he plans to send 15 or 20 horses to Colonial Downs. ``With Lenny Hale at the helm, I feel confident things will be pretty darned nice there,'' he said.

Others in the industry are more skeptical. Some fear that Colonial Downs has drawn up an overly ambitious set of races. In other words, there might not be enough high-caliber horses in the region to fill all the slots.

``It's going to be a little bit of a struggle filling the races,'' admits racing secretary Hale.

Critics might be right about the ambitious schedule, ``but if you don't shoot high, you'll never hit anything. We want quality racing for Virginia,'' he said.

``It is very ambitious,'' said owner/trainer Pearson. ``But if those races fill, it will be dynamite racing.'' ILLUSTRATION: TIMELINE

Nov. 9, 1988: Voters approve pari-mutuel horse racing.

February 1996: First off-track betting parlor opens in

Chesapeake.

December 1996: Second off-track betting parlor opens in Richmond.

Sept. 1, 1997: Colonial Downs scheduled to open in New Kent. KEYWORDS: RACE TRACK HORSE RACING

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