 get started. Austin will be making sure this is streamed today. So that's a notice to all who are joining that this is live streamed. I do want to just do a roll call because we are working virtually. So Commissioner Cameron good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone I am here. Commissioner Brian. I am here. Commissioner Hill. Good afternoon. We are all set to get started. This was a formal proceeding so I do have some opening remarks today as we know Tuesday, November 9th, 2021. This is an adjudicatory hearing before the Massachusetts gaming Commission relative to the application for a license to conduct a racing meeting for calendar year 2022 submitted by Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment LLC which I'll refer to as PGR. I'm Kathy Judstine and chair of the commission. I'm joined today by my colleagues as we just heard. Commissioners Gail Cameron, Eileen O'Brien and Brad Hill. The entire Commission will preside over the hearing and decision of this matter. This hearing will be conducted in accordance with 205-CMR-101.01. General Laws, Chapter 30A, Sections 10 and 11 and 801-CMR-1.02, the informal bare hearing rules. Before we begin I'll like to explain the process that will govern this procedure. First, a notice of hearing was provided to PGR in advance of today's hearing. It identifies 11 issues that will be the focus of the Commission's attention at this hearing. Though everything raised in the application is at issue, the Commission has indicated that it will specifically be considering the fall. Whether PGR has submitted an application that meets the requirements of General Laws, Chapter 128A, whether PGR has provided adequate answers to the questions set out by the Commission in the application, the financial ability of PGR to operate a racetrack for General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I, the impact of the application on the maximization of state revenues per General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I, the suitability of raising facilities for operation at the time of the year for which dates are assigned per General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I. The circumstance that large groups of spectators require state and convenient facilities per General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I. The interest of members of the public in raising competition honestly managed and of good quality per General Laws, Chapter 128, Section 3, Little I, the necessity of having and maintaining proper physical facilities for raising meetings per General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I. The economic interest in investments and investments of those who in good faith have provided and maintained such facilities per General Laws, Chapter 128A, Section 3, Little I. Whether the applicant is financially responsible, able to meet obligations to the commonwealth, has suitable and safe facilities for the service of patrons and is likely to conduct raising in accordance with approved practices and in a manner consistent with the public safety, health, morals, and welfare, including the suitability of the applicant and its leadership to hold or conduct a raising meeting, the reputation for honest dealing and gaming history of the applicant's ownership and leadership. At the conclusion of my opening comments, this proceeding will commence with the presentation of the evidence in this matter. Specifically, PGR will be called upon to present its application and call additional witnesses if any. Any commissioner may ask a question of any witness who is testifying at any point during or following their presentation. The commission may then request testimony from any individual listed on the notice of hearing or witness list, including but not limited to Dr. Alexandra Leipzig-Lown, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's Director of Racing. PGR may also ask questions of any witness who testifies. PGR may raise any objection it desires at any time. However, the basis for all objections must be clearly stated. Finally, at the conclusion of all the evidence, PGR will be provided an opportunity to make a closing statement to summarize its view of the evidence. Before we begin, I understand there are pre-marked exhibits that have been prepared in advance of this hearing. Those exhibits are identified on the exhibit list that has been circulated to each commissioner. They are as well. Exhibit one, PGR's application for license to hold or conduct a racing meeting at Plain Ridge Racecourse for calendar year 2022, date of September 30th, 2021. Exhibit two, notice of November 9, 2021 hearing. Ray application dated October 29, 2021. Exhibit three, notice of November 8, 2021 public hearing. Ray application dated October 27, 2021. Exhibit four, recording of November 8, 2021 public hearing. Ray application. We have the link to that. Exhibit five, written testimony submitted to the commission. Ray the application. Exhibit six, excerpt from 1962 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Election Statistics, public document number 43. And exhibit seven, memorandum from Dr. Lightbaum to the commissioners. Ray the application dated November 8, 2021. Commissioners, are there any objections to exhibits one through seven being marked and entered into evidence? Hearing none. Thank you. Those exhibits shall be admitted into evidence. In order to maintain a clean record, I ask that documents are referred to by exhibit number. And if you don't have that handy, Councilor Grossman and Councilor Monaghan can help us with that. If PGR would like to have any additional documents entered into evidence during the course of the hearing, I would ask that they be properly introduced and marked. No final decision will be made at the conclusion of the public portion of the hearing. Instead of the conclusion of the proceeding, the commission will privately deliberate and ultimately issue a written decision. If at any point during the commission's deliberations it determines that further testimonial or documentary evidence is desirable, it reserves the right to ask PGR to provide such evidence prior to a final decision being made. We will now swear all the witnesses in. Anyone who will be testifying at this proceeding, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will provide before the commission at this proceeding will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you and I'll have you spotted in the affirmative, Councilor Grossman. Before we begin, does PGR have any preliminary issues or objections? We do not. Okay. With that, I ask PGR to identify its first witnesses and present its application. Thank you, Mr. Utul. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Steve Utul, Director of Racing at Plainville Park, casino. Thank you for the opportunity to present the application today. I'd also like to thank those that participated yesterday in the public comment period, especially the Chairman, Board of Selection, Brian Kelly, Plainville Police Chief, Jim Floyd, and Plainville Fire Chief, Rich Ball. So it's my honor to present the application for 2022. As I mentioned yesterday, this application will represent the 24th pressing season here at the property. This will be the ninth application by Plainville Game Development. It consists of the completed application, $25,000 bond continuation document, $300 licensing fee, and 16 exhibits will give evidence to the fact that this application needs the statutory criteria for a licensure, financial ability to operate a racetrack, the maximization of state revenues, the suitability of a racing facility for operation at the time of the year for which the date is granted, the accommodation of large groups of spectators in a safe and convenient environment before public racing competition is honest and managed of the good quality, having the proper physical facilities for racing meetings, as well as the necessity to accord fan treatment to the economic interests and investments of those who in good faith have provided and maintained such facilities. And the Game and Redevelopment's parent company, Penn National Gaming, continues to be a leader in the gaming and the racing industry, and that reflects the ability to, the financial ability to operate Plainbridge as well as the ability to operate 13 other racing facilities and nine other jurisdictions, including tree off-track wagering facilities in two different states, with Penn Nationals ADW being Hollywood races. It provides cooperation at Plainbridge, a great resource from the corporate racing team, especially to support the guidance from my corporate vice president of racing, Chris McAulay. I'd like to highlight some of the points in Exhibit 25 that point to why this application is beneficial to the public, the common and the applicant. Penn National Gaming is a substantial regional gaming operator with an outstanding financial capability and operational resources. Penn National Gaming takes pride in creating and inviting and inviting racing atmosphere by investing deeply both in the racing, customer side facing in the horse racing side as well. The physical facilities for our racing meetings, I state it out of the air here, they are well maintained and provide a convenient and safe atmosphere for our customers and the horsemen, as you heard yesterday from testimony from both of the chiefs. Our track is maintained with today's acceptable procedures and practices. We also continue to offer our racing officials their technologies to perform their duties and honestly manage the racing here at Plainbridge. I believe that some of you on your recent visit have seen the end which indicates that we have basically the top of the line equipment for them to judge the races. While the racing at Plainbridge has been moving in positive directions in all facets of racing, we did address head-on concern a few years ago with participation and field size and we found that conducting around 110 racing days or less each season helped with the average number of races per day to stabilize the field size. Well 12 million dollars this year Plainbridge has created a generator to maximize its state revenues. So again we propose 110 days over a 33-week schedule, however we want to come back to the actual nuts and bolts of the 22 schedule and expand on the current climate here in New England. The mid-April through the end of November schedule is consistent with past seasons and facility is suited for the time of year which we have applied for which is crammed into that opportunity zone that we have excluding the winter months when the when the track is insurable. We believe there's sufficient evidence provided that granting these dates we benefit official to our horsemen and the public and in return provide for the fair treatment and economic interests of Plainville gaming and redevelopment. I would like to expand on the nuts and bolts of the schedule. We are in the process in New England there are three commercial products operating in New England for harness racing right now. It will be Bangor in northern Maine, Cumberland in southern Maine and Plainbridge and Plainbridge is that is required to submit our application prior to the other commercial tracks in the region supplying their date applications. So when I was preparing this we were kind of going in blind as to what the other tracks were going to be proposing for days of the week and when they were going to be racing. We have had about four or five conference calls between the three tracks we work very well together and National does operate Bangor so it's a little bit easier to work with other entities that you're involved with but Cumberland is a new track race its first season this year and and they've done they've done well and they're very good to work with. So we try to maximize the ability of the horses in the area to move around if they so wish. We do have Massachusetts people that go up there and race but we have a pretty fair amount of main entities that come down here and fill our races to the maximum ability that we can fill them. So on the heels of those meetings we have talked about changing the the days of the week that we that we're going to race and and changing what I've proposed in this application is a mirror to the 2021 racing dates but working with the other tracks I think those days of the week are going to change and the three and the four day weeks may change as well. So I just wanted to give you the the heads up on on why that that was taking place. Their their dates are going in this month and they're having a hearing this month on those dates up in May. So I think we worked out a pretty good schedule and it's not completely finalized yet but I think we worked out a good schedule where there's no there's a very little overlap. We have no control over a couple of the main fairs that race racists at their fairs but for the commercial tracks there's very little overlap in any area so it gives a long season to the horsemen and the participants in the New England area. It's very difficult to try to weave your way around all the race tracks in the northeast Yonkers, the upstate Buffalo and Batavia, upstate New York, Saratoga even as far down as the Meadows, Pocono and the Pennsylvania tracks but I think for the for the immediate area I think we've done a pretty good job at identifying a lot of the a lot of the benefits both to the operator and to the horsemen that would that would work in the best interest of racing not just that plane route but in the area as well and then to keep it to keep it moving in in a in the right direction more or less. We recently on Monday concluded our 100th day this year so we have 10 days left our season ends on Friday the day after Thanksgiving Friday November 26th. This season included the spirit of mass and the Clara Barton race which are staples for us but it also included the two million dollar sire stakes that's spurned on by the standard bird breeding program in the state which has done very well and has provided us with a lot of extra horses the past few years because the breeding has has come up in numbers substantially for them. I'd like to commend my racing staff for having a very successful year so far and also the MGC racing team who assists us and we try to assist them when we can but they do a great job down there with all the testing and everything that they do we appreciate we appreciate their help. I thank you for the opportunity to present the application today I think I hit all the marks that we needed to hit if I didn't you can question me on it I can answer if I hope to be able to answer any questions that you have regarding my testimony and the application and any of the submissions or just racing in general. Questions? Commissioner Cameron? Thank you Madam Chair and Mr. O'Toole nice to see you and I didn't have I didn't in any way think your your presentation wasn't complete but I did have a question about you mentioned you know the work you've done to with Maine in particular in New England here to make sure that the race states kind of may be opposite one another. I know what we've talked about in past years and I was wondering because you also mentioned that you know everything is increasing meaning purses and all aspects of racing have come up due to you know the Race Horse Development Fund and all the efforts including the breeding but my question is what will you do this year to ensure that our local horses and our local horsemen and women have those opportunities with those higher purses to to compete I know you've taken steps in the past but if you could speak to the efforts you'll take this year to to provide those opportunities. So the opportunities with the numbers that we have especially this past season any horsemen that wanted to race here that was local that was a good character was allowed to was allowed to race and was never not given that opportunity there was plenty of there's been plenty of opportunities but also there are allowances there was a lot of ideas batted around throughout the years of you know bones program or different things for Massachusetts owned horses or local horses or whatever Paul Barrett my race secretary came up with a very good plan very good idea where he where we gave we might have even pushed it over the over the limit with some of the allowances that we gave so in other words if you have a horse that I'm not sure if you're familiar with the term maidens but maidens are horses that haven't won yet and then there's non-winners of two and non-winners of four races and non-winners of six and it goes up the ladder so if you are 100 percent Massachusetts owned you get an additional win so if you win a non-winners of two and it's your second win you can actually go back in there until you win three races whereas a main or a new york horse would not have that same opportunity to remain in that class also on some of our classes there are earnings requirements conditions so a non-winners of five thousand dollars it's last four starts or it's last five starts if you were massachusetts owned it would be there would be it would be six thousand or fifty eight hundred or some a number that would increase that paul puts on that on that class there's also a caveat for massachusetts bred horses they also get the additional an allowance an extra win or whatever so actually a massachusetts massachusetts owned horse could have three wins on its card and compete in a non-winners of four and that's a huge advantage for for the people that are involved in the breeding program and the people that are involved in our racing here that are massachusetts owners it's also a great incentive to stay home and race here right correct yeah great thank you for that mr otul another question for mr otul commissioners rachel bryne commissioner hill um so i have a couple of questions and commissioners karen do you have another question not right now okay um so if i understand correctly it's going to be 110 days over the 33 weeks but the days and sounds may change from the application that's just based on that good coordination with the other two tracks is that right yes pretty much yes and then ultimately this year you'll have i know we approved the two uh racing dates the other day for the because of the heat so and ultimately you'll have raised how many this past year when we're finished we'll do 110 exactly exactly what we had put in right so and again uh for next year always stay deep first with the horses if there's any reason to cancel we try to make those up at the end of the season we try to make them up at the most opportune time but because of the day of the cancellations we were we were heading into our four day a week schedule and so it was very tricky putting those putting those two dates back in the car all right really helpful um can you go over just any improvements you um you've made would you start the facilities or the track this past year so we put in the famous uh side door that we talked about at a previous meeting that's that one of the few things that we've done what we what we plan to do this off season is to because we rearrange the backside so much for the COVID protocols we kind of tore it apart and we want to try and put it back together and go back to a little bit more cohesive atmosphere utilizing the paddock again the paddock is very sparsely used because we started using the barns and I've had some conversations with with uh with the horsemen I've had a few conversations with Alex about this but I'm going to uh we are going to get together with Dominic uh the director of non-caming operations was in charge of facilities and I know that there's project actually I think he's might even be out there now looking at some of the rougher areas of the barns that have rotted around the basis and things like that that we're getting a code from personal construction to to fix that up so we have we have a lot of work to do we didn't do much this year we were kind of recuperating from the from the pandemic situation and we really ripped the place apart in order to accommodate the uh social distancing and we need to put that back together in some shape or form that works for everyone and then in terms of the track from last year were there improvements made um so every year every year I put we put a lot of material on that on that track and maintain that track to the to the best of our ability um we uh we have added exact tonnage that we've put on the track but um I know I end up in this substantial and we have purchased about 20 I actually know about the material that we use we use three materials we use a stone dust material we get a quarter inch cut and we use a rice material like we've at least 20 try out the track the surface itself is very thank you for that last question and I'm not sure it's part of question cameras but the the minimum price is four thousand let me remember last this year the the the minimum price that I put in the application is four thousand but we haven't been uh done that low for quite some time it's it's about six thousand that's what I'm talking about okay so that's also flexible right okay yeah we have we have I don't think there was one the big one race that went for four thousand this year uh the minimum kind of consistently stayed at six thousand dollars our average price is almost eleven thousand dollars on the average uh race so some some are below that some are higher than that okay twenty five thousand and then my last question and I'll go back to my belt question so yesterday we have a hearing and there was a question raised by a constituent about um local approval if I remember correctly you how many races how many seasons have you been associated with racing in Plainville I've been associated with all 24 right 22 on this side of the man on the management side of the of things right and your application does show that um in 1997 it was a lovely town administrator who was still creative with respect to the community host of agreement um Mr. Fernandez Joe Fernandez included the letter and the letter stated September 29th but it was confirming the local approval by the board of select men on September 8 and since then has there been ever any question about the validity of the local approval has that ever come up with respect to a season after season uh before uh PGR took over uh no there's never been a question on it um in in in time a little bit because I was I wasn't I wasn't involved on the management side but I was involved in the racing side I attended all the all the meetings and I called Ellen Robertson the clerk yesterday after the meeting to find out there was evidence of of the notice and she said that they don't keep the notices after after a year don't keep the notice but she says that she she's fairly confident because bringing a racetrack to Plainville was very substantial at the time and the minutes uh and the people that attended um and asked questions that are noted in the minutes uh would have been uh would definitely have been adequate notice uh and also then on the heels of the approval of the location was multiple night hearings that I believe I believe Alex may remember as well um in the town uh because there was a lot of questions about bringing a racetrack to Plainville and I know that there was a there was more than one night and I know they started at seven o'clock and didn't get over until almost 11 each night and uh because obviously I wanted to see the track built at the time because I was on the racing side so uh there was there was a lot of chatter and and and there was never a question about whether or not the uh the act of appropriately and approving the locations or that it was posted properly there's never a question about it and in fact Mr. Fernandez this letter says it was properly posted and uh and then he signed up on it in his role as town administrator on behalf of the board so that's really helpful thank you for going back and looking into that history for us appreciate that commissioner um O'Brien are you leaning in for a question okay Isha Cameron are you leaning in? I am not uh all my questions have been answered thank you Commissioner Hill do you have any questions from Mr. O'Toole? I have no questions either Madam Chair the the last one that you asked was something of concern to me but it's been addressed okay great but we get to um we could circle back to Mr. O'Toole we do have the opportunity to hear from Dr. Lightfile now um if uh we have questions for her thank you so much good afternoon Alex good afternoon um first I want to just echo um Steve's comments about the working relationships between his staff our staff and um the HHA NE um it was a relief to everybody this year when the COVID protocols could be uh lessened after the um but we went through last year which was very challenging um so I appreciate everybody um working through those uh issues last year and then this year um we had a great uh racing season so far um as has been mentioned uh PPC is on uh track to race the 110 days that they asked for last year and that will meet their requirements under 128c for uh simulcasting that's also the number that they have asked for um in the application this year um they would be meeting the uh requirements of 128c for that um and they also have met their financial obligations haven't don't have any debts with the commission um and there haven't been any violations um of the paramutual wagering regulations um I'll keep my um part short um the only thing we recommend is that there's an independent expert uh come in to review the track surface um this is something we've done I believe since 2015 and it's not a reflection on any problems that we're seeing with the track um it originally uh we started doing it um because of suffix shortened festival meets and we wanted a review of that surface before they actually raced on it and at the time the commission felt and rightly so that if we were doing it for suffix we should probably also do something along those lines for plane rig so that's worked um very smoothly over the years um Steve's been able to bring somebody in um and review the track um his track superintendents have been um very gracious to have somebody come in um and sometimes they have some you know little ideas of different things that may help a little bit so um I think it's been worthwhile and um we'll ask for them to do that again and um then the only thing um as Steve has mentioned uh he and the um H-H-A-N-E are still uh working on what a final schedule for next year will look like and um so at some point um they can bring that back um either to me or if there's going to be substantial changes to the commission and um just for uh approval of what their final schedule for next year might look like. Questions for Dr. Lightbone for comments. Commissioner Cameron. Good afternoon Dr. Lightbone. I know your um emphasis as long as I've been working with you has always been with uh health and safety meaning uh you know the health and safety of as a vet of the horses as well as the men and women involved with this with this sport. There's nothing I I didn't see anything but I know how thoroughly you look at an application there's I didn't see anything different anything uh that would give us pause because there's something we're not quite sure about or it's different than the last year or two because we know there have been substantial changes over the years is that is my assessment accurate that um that there's nothing there that should give us pause as far as a change from say last year to this year other than say COVID related issues. Yes that is correct and I think um the safety records have um you know they stood the test of time and um obviously we're always um reviewing things and seeing if there's anything new out there that we can adopt but um there aren't any substantial changes right to the application. Thank you and last question is um um I see the 110 days uh this year as same as last year um that used to be somewhat contentious racing days but it seems everyone is working effectively and I appreciated Mr. Atul mentioning a study that was done to determine uh for all those involved the appropriate number of days is that so that was a smooth piece of this application as far as you're aware. Yes um like I said they are as far as I know talking to both parties they are still attempting to come up with what the final schedule will be but both sides seem to be negotiating in good faith and the different concerns for instance this year there were a few days where the four days a week it was hard to get enough horse entries so that's what the horseman and um Steve are looking at is but what the best way to address that is so that the days um do have uh full fields and full um number of races so okay excellent communication between the parties. Great thank you for that. Other questions for Dr. Leica? So I don't think the lack of questions is any indicator other than our confidence and in your review of the application Alex thank you so much. Mr. Atul I want to give you the opportunity to make any kind of a closing statement if you have one before we adjourn our public um component of this statutory hearing. Sure thank you thank you Madam Chair and thanks again commissioners for the opportunity to present the application for 2022 um as always uh it's a pleasure to appear before you and uh and give you recaps of the season or apply for dates following season uh you know you accept the condition for to have the uh track evaluated that's always worked out well. On a side note to that my track super attends the annual conferences for track superintendents which gives him a good indicator what's going on as far as the latest technologies for track maintenance and more importantly um it was an internal fight because we just went through our budget hearings I would say that corporate corporate deals uh things change that much at these conferences from year to year so maybe send them every other year for years uh it's more I explain that it's more about relationships than really it is about anything that's changing in business um relationships are valuable and when my track super finds a an issue that he's struggling with he can hopefully use other these other guys to see if they've uh sort of look at the same issues or have any ideas so um and Chris McLean is a big component of the super that all the tracks attending that conference so um that's it's been a it's been a good thing and I want to thank Alex for for because uh works more smoothly than what I why that I can like I'm the trick in the shoes when it comes to raising very much thank you before I make that just one other thing for new commissioner hell I know he's seen us up on the hill uh in the contangorous a simulcasting debates and the simulcasting rollovers so now he gets a chance to see what it's like on this side yeah and he's been down to the racetrack you just have to get him into the um the car yeah next on the list um everyone's favorite day um as a mass gaming commissioner um you know before I make my concluding uh statements I think all of us recognize because Dr. Lightman is so good at reminding us that there are so many jobs and opportunities created by this industry not just those that we see at the track but all of those that come through the ancillary um businesses and the breeding and the retail that comes out of it there's so many um there's so many opportunities and there's they're grounded in history so we you know appreciate today's application it's an annual process will be adjudicating in private but we appreciate today your full wholesome report and um acknowledge the the jobs that were creating opportunities that were created over the past year so um unless commissioners you have any further questions for p for this role tool or for pgr um we'll conclude this portion of the proceeding anything that you're leaving on the table okay great commission will now uh deliberate about the matter in private and issue a written decision um he says this portion however remains open i just a reminder that should we decide to that we need anything further for our decision making we'll come back and and make the um request there's light again it's a little bit of a distraction so sorry um we'll make sure that we get what we need but this has been a very wholesome report today so thank you uh commissioners that means that i say goodbye and then i believe we have another invitation uh that will go into our not a virtual room for our adjudicatory and deliver our deliberate processes so thank you mr atul thank you everyone lisa i know you were there thank you so much we appreciate everyone's attention today and appreciate those who've joined us thank you