Both of the remaining tracks in Maine are racinos, meaning they are being wholly propped up by government subsidies.
When its current meet ends on November 28, Scarborough Downs, a
harness track in Maine, will be closing for good. This will leave
one active racetrack in Maine (Bangor Raceway) and but two in the
whole of New England (the other, Plainridge Park in Massachusetts).
Relatedly, both of the remaining tracks are racinos, meaning they
are being wholly propped up by government subsidies.
Scarborough opened in 1950 as a Thoroughbred track, but it
eventually (1970s) went exclusively harness. Like most of
horseracing in general, and virtually all of the harness variety,
Scarborough has been in incessant decline for decades. To make
matters worse, back in 2016 the track was forced to remove all its
horse barns because manure was seeping into local groundwater.
The
final nail came in 2018 when the massive property was sold to a
developer with an eye, the Press Herald reports, toward a town
center with housing, shopping, dining, offices, an interconnected
road network, trails, recreation facilities and more. Yeah, Id say
thats a whole lot more appealing not to mention economically
stimulating than an archaic, decrepit racetrack. And an added
bonus of a little something called moral progress.
See
Shuttered U.S. Racetracks (Since 2000) as of November 20, 2020