MD Tracks to be auctioned
 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/h...,7789932.story

So, here's my conspiracy theory:

With Angelos now entering the Preakness picture, and considering his recent meeting with Gov O'Malley and Senate President Miller, this picture is starting to take shape in my pea-brain.

I think Pete wants slots. He claims he wants to save the Preakness, which paints him a hero but, reality is, he wants slots money.

Miller has dropped the hint that he is willing to call a special session of the legislature to deal with the MD tracks.

Magna is now requesting permission to auction off the MD tracks.

So, Miller calls the special session, where they typically ram stuff through without full discussion and hearings, and gets special legislation for Pete, and only Pete, to have slots at Laurel and Pimlico. Pete makes his bid, buys the tracks, and saves the Preakness!!!

There are worse scenarios

You should be playing that ""hero"" song from the Spiderman soundrack in the background !

That isn't out of the realm of possibility. Maryland government has a long history of evil back door dealing. Agnew, Mandel, etc.

Well that's a load of horses.hit if it happens.

You are right - Joe DeFrancis could own them again.....

Who else is stepping up?

Is it just a matter of Peter Angelos that you have a problem with or do you have a different solution in mind?

I'm just a conspiracy theorist.

Do you have suggestions on what could/should happen?

As I just said in the other thread, I think having Peter involved would be great, and while I don't know enough overall, I can't think of another likely positive alternative.

And I agree, in that I don't see another positive alternative either. We know most of the other players that might step up and most seem to have negative baggage.

Perhaps there is some new potential owner lying in wait and we haven' heard of them yet.

I would think there would be a lot worse scenarios than this one. Angelos needs to weave around that rule that as a MLB owner, he can't have ownership stake in a gambling enterprise. Should be interesting, but I think, in the long term interests of MD racing, this "conspiracy" is probably a better case scenario.