Gambling expansion may aid Vermont track

Anne Wallace Allen

Monday, Dec. 2, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

POWNAL, Vt. -- Standing high above a bandstand that seated thousands and a racetrack now covered with grass, Jimmy Winchester pointed to the spot where he used to fire the starting gun that sent the thoroughbreds on their way.

Winchester was in the announcer's booth, now dusty and stained with bird droppings. Below was a complex of barns that once held 900 horses and the winding Hoosic River.

The track has been virtually unused for years.

"I see this place and I think, what a damned waste!" Winchester said.

Green Mountain Race Track is a large operation by any state's standards. Covering 144 acres of riverfront land on the borders of Massachusetts and New York, it has a bandstand that holds 16,000 and parking for 11,000 cars.

Its primary owner, John Tietgens, would love to see racing there again. So would Winchester, who is Tietgens' friend and a part-owner of the track. Winchester now runs a general store nearby.

But economics have changed since horse racing ended a quarter-century ago, and many tracks have gone dark. For a while, dog-racing kept the track active, but in the early 1990s Vermont passed an animal cruelty law that ended that as well.

Ever since the track has sat empty, except for occasional concerts, home shows, or other public events, and a huge bingo game that the local Shriners put on every few months.

Tietgens, 80, would like to sell the place. He even has interested buyers, he said. But horse racing alone no longer can pay the bills, both men said. These days, to make money, a track also would have to have full-time simulcasting, which allows spectators to bet on races at tracks throughout the country in addition to races being run on site.

Vermont law allows horse racing and simulcasting, but not the latter when the horses aren't racing on site, Winchester said.

But Winchester and Tietgens sense that change is in the air, now that Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, an avowed gambling opponent, is on his way out -- and Gov.-elect James Douglas is on his way in.

Douglas already has said he supports Vermont joining the multi-state Powerball lottery. He also might allow expanded simulcasting if that is needed to bring life back to the Pownal track.

"I'm told that in order to be economically feasible, some simulcast betting may be necessary," Douglas said. "I'm open to learning about that and considering it."

It is not only up to Douglas and the Legislature, though the latter would have to change Vermont law. The Vermont State Police investigate would-be racetrack operators to make sure they are not connected to crime, and the Vermont Racing Commission ultimately decides who gets a license.

Winchester would love to have slot machines at the track too, but Douglas already has made up his mind there.

"There will be no slot machines, no video poker, no casinos, none of that," he said.

Dean's long-held stance against gambling angers Winchester, who is offended at the suggestion simulcasting would harm the area.

"I guarantee that there'd be less kids in jail if this racetrack were operating," he said. "I could get them a job here; I could teach them work ethics."

As for the gambling now run by the Vermont Lottery:

"It's the crack cocaine of gambling, the scratch ticket," Winchester said. "It takes a little bit more sophistication to sit down and try to handicap a horse."

When investors proposed introducing casino gambling at the Pownal track in the mid-1990s, Dean opposed it, saying it would alter Vermont's character and introduce crime to southwestern Vermont.

But Winchester pointed out that Vermonters do gamble all the time -- through other states.

"I have to go over to New York to bet the (Kentucky) Derby. I have to go over to New York to bet the Breeders Cup," he said. "We're short of money in this state. Why can't I give my taxes to Jim Douglas and let him spend it?"