By T. D. Thornton
One day after an assertion from the track's ownership group that the GII Charles Town Classic won't be run this year because the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) refused to approve contracted purse account funds for the $1.2 million race at its Jan. 23 meeting, the commissioner spearheading the effort to redirect that money to local racing took to talk radio to both defend his position and to vow a personal wager that Charles Town will indeed end up carding its signature race in 2018.
“This area, in horse racing and breeding, they're starving to death. People are going out of the business faster than you can say 'Jack Robinson,'” commissioner Ken Lowe Jr. told WKAZ, the state capital-based news radio station in West Virginia. “There's over 300 empty stalls at the track at Charles Town right now. If you want to let [the industry] die [by allowing the Classic to be fully funded], then go ahead and do that. If you want to put people out of work, then go ahead and do that. Because that's what's happening here.”
The WVRC and Charles Town management have been at odds for the past six weeks since the commission refused to extend what in many racing jurisdictions is a perfunctory okaying of an 8% allocation from the purse account to fund a slate of stakes races that has already been approved via contract by Charles Town's Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.
At Tuesday's meeting, Lowe reiterated his proposal to either approve a $300,000 Classic funded solely out of the purse account, or, if Charles Town wished to put on a Classic for a larger amount, he proposed a 50/50 scheme whereby the WVRC would approve letting half of that money come from the purse account if the track covered the other half out of its own operational pocket.
Within 24 hours of the commission voting to impose such a funding scheme, the WVRC vote faced public criticism from West Virginia legislators and Governor Jim Justice, who told WKAZ he was looking “into ways to have this decision reversed.”
Under questioning from WKAZ host Hoppy Kercheval, Lowe said he would be willing to sit down and talk with track officials about reaching a compromise so the Classic would not be in jeopardy.
But when Kercheval pointed out that John Finamore, the senior vice president of regional operations for Penn National Gaming, Inc., already said on his show Wednesday that “the race is off” and “Mr. Lowe's alternative option is a non-starter,” Lowe responded with a personal vow in the form of a wager.
“I'll tell you what I'll do,” Lowe said. “I'm not a betting man per se, but I will tell you on the air, if this race isn't run this year, I will donate $1,000 to a local charity or non-profit that I will personally write a check for. Because I believe it can be run as long as they promote it, as long as they go out and get the horses. And that could have–should have–been done before this. There's issues involved there. I don't think [the Classic] was ever in jeopardy. I really don't.”
Lowe then underscored his willingness to work out a solution so the Classic can be run.
“I'm no Donald Trump, but I get along with–I've never met an honest person in my life I couldn't work with,” Lowe said.
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