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Racetrack group cantering ahead

By Meg Olson

He’s had lunch with the seniors, spoken to half a dozen community organizations and chatted with dozens of community members. James Ough gives every appearance of being in town to court Point Roberts, but the horse-racing project he’s touting is still both tentative and preliminary..

Ough has spent the beginnings of most weeks in June and July staying at Maple Meadow, driving around, visiting businesses and neighbors of the 67-acre property off Mill between Benson and Johnson roads where he said the group he represents wants to build a “green equine center.” The development he describes is mostly rolling green fields, empty most of the year and available to the community, but transformed into a festival racing center for a few weeks every summer. Only the clubhouse at one end would run year-round, offering simulcast wagering on races at other tracks.

His business card describes him as a “thoroughbred consultant and bloodstock agent,” he owns several racehorses and Ough said he “has been involved in all levels of management in horseracing and involved in TV commentary to this day.”

The group he represents, Ough said, is EQTAAH, an acronym for Equine Quarter horse Thoroughbred Arabian Appaloosa Harness. It’s the newest venture of Andy Stronach, son of racetrack baron Frank Stronach and previous top executive with his company Magna Entertainment which runs some of the county’s biggest tracks. “Our founder has found through his father’s company that buying and operating big racetracks is not as rewarding as it once was,” he told the July 3 meeting of the taxpayers’ association board. “Andy Stronach is a man who loves horse – all kinds of horses,” he said at the July 10 meeting of the voters association. “He decided he wanted to do something more fun than a regular racetrack.”

Stronach came to Point Roberts by accident, Ough said . “He was looking for Blaine but this place stuck in his mind,” he said. “We have been looking at various locations where we can have equine centers and limited festivals of horseracing. He’s appointed me the point man to look at the feasibility of those locations. The easy thing would be to find a place off I-5 but there’s something special about this place.”

“We think Point Roberts is perfect for this kind of land use,” Ough said. “The land is going to be used for something and you have the opportunity to use it in an ecological way, with a green concept.” Ough said the project is a special kind of racing facility – not a dirt oval surrounded by grandstands and stables, but a green field with moveable rails outlining a changeable course and temporary tent facilities for horses and patrons. “It looks more like English style racing, like steeplechase,” Ough said. The dates for live racing would be limited to the minimum the state would allow, he said. “It would be a festival. That’s what succeeds, something short, sweet and fun. The tents would show up in July and in the fall they would be gone.”

What would stay would be the clubhouse, which would be a simulcast and pari-mutuel betting center year-round and could attract several hundred patrons a day. The 20,000 square-foot facility, bigger than the Breakers, would also have a restaurant and bars and could employ 20-30 people year round. During live racing Ough said he would expect up to several thousand people would come to the Point for a weekend of racing and it could generate up to 100 seasonal positions. In the off-season, the racing area could be open to some public use, Ough said. “Maybe someone wants to start a polo club,” he said.

The simulcast center will be a showcase for new user-friendly wagering machines. Stronach is president of Futuristic Entertainment Inc., a company which develops new gaming software and equipment which have been touted as making the complicated business of wagering on horse races as simple as a video lottery terminal. “Our first project will be the showcase for the new machines and my hope is that it’s Point Roberts,” Ough said.
Taxpayers association board member Michael Rosser asked if other locations in Point Roberts had been considered other than the 67-acre parcel owned by local development partnership Georgia Park. “The area you have in mind is listed as important for certain wildlife species, so there might be some objection,” he said. Ough said they would consider any appropriate parcel of adequate size and would also look at taking mitigation steps if they did end up causing an impact by clearing the wooded area. Rosser also said a location further from residential areas and closer to the commercial core might be appropriate.

“We could certainly use something of this kind, though it does sound a little like the circus coming to town,” said board member Rose Momsen. She asked where Ough expected clientele to come from, and how would the bottleneck at the border affect the viability of the business. “If someone is a regular player and is interested in playing they’ll wait or get NEXUS,” Ough said “We wouldn’t expect them all to show up at the same time unless we’re doing something special.” He expects to tap into the fan base built up by Hastings Park and Expedition Park in B.C. that would welcome an opportunity to bet in larger U.S. racing pools. “We will offer people the ability to bet on races all over the U.S.,” he said. During the four to five day live race meets he hopes people will bring a picnic and the family and spend the day or the weekend. “Racing centers like this regularly draw vacationers,” he said.

Ough said EQTAAH wanted to involve the community as much as possible in developing the new facility and he planned to cap his public relations blitz with a community barbecue in August, the date for which is not yet set. Who isn’t involved at this stage are state and county regulators who can give the project the go-ahead.

“There is no official application for a track in Point Roberts though people certainly are talking about it,” said county planner Sylvia Goodwin. ‘We haven’t had the opportunity to talk to a real person so can’t evaluate it.” She said sports clubs, playing fields and other outdoor recreation facilities were allowed as conditional uses in the rural zone, but it would have to be determined if a racetrack fit in that category. If an application is received, Goodwin said the project would go through an analysis of environmental, traffic, noise analysis, and wildlife issues and a public hearing on its way through the process.

The Washngton Horse Racing Commission has had a presentation from project proponents but likewise, no application. County executive Pete Kremen said he had met with project proponents but the project still seemed rather speculative. He also said he thought there might be better locations in the county. “I’m not sold on having any horse-racing facility in the county but I think there would be less local impact off I-5 in the Birch Bay area. In Point Roberts there would be substantial impacts on transportation infrastructure to handle the extra traffic.”

Ough remains optimistic that the project will encounter few obstacles once it finds the right location. “The county will do it, they just might not do it here,” he said. “The first thing the state says is get the county O.K and the county is very interested.” He said he anticipates an application to the county should be made within 60 days. Ough also is confident the group he represents has the staying power to follow through on their plans. “I can assure you Andy Stronach will not go broke,” he said.

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