THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
You win some, you lose some and some are rained out. South Hampton Roads lost out this week when the Virginia Racing Commission licensed Ohio track operator Arnold Stansley to place the state's first pari-mutuel horse-race track in New Kent County.
South Hampton Roads - either Portsmouth or Virginia Beach - was our preference. Excellent proposals were presented to the racing commission by Virginia Racing Associates, which aspired to operate a Portsmouth track, and Churchill Downs, which had cast its lot with Virginia Beach.
But the racing commission nod has now gone to the proposer of a track in New Kent County. Its call was plausible. The proposal looks to be a sound one. And the county is placed well for a track, between the Richmond and Hampton Roads metropolitan areas, and readily accessible from I-64 and close to I-94 and I-294.
That New Kent is sparsely populated and has an underdeveloped hospitality industry strikes us as a minus. South Hampton Roads abounds in inns and restaurants, and a race track would fit in well with the host of existing entertainment/recreation activities within the region.
Nonetheless, New Kent is the racing commission's pick, nearly six years after Virginians cleared the way for pari-mutuel racing in the Old Dominion. The commission voted 4-0, with one abstention, for the plan laid before it by investor Arnold Stansley, who projects a $40 million race facility in New Kent.
The track and all that goes with it is to be constructed on 345 acres donated by Chesapeake Corp., which intends to develop an office, commercial and residential complex around the the facility.
States customarily regulate pari-mutuel racing, and the Virginia Racing Commission's main mission is to do its best to assure that Virginia gets a race track that will prosper. A successful track is not a certainty given a decline in attendance and betting registered by the horce-racing industry generally. A successful track is in Virginia's best interests. Disappointed as we are that South Hampton Roads was nosed out, we would be the last to wish the New Kent County venture other than good fortune. by CNB