Pea Patch barren

This is a sad day for racing in America.

The Pea Patch is no more.

Soybeans are still grown in the Ellis Park infield, a cash crop that has always helped the Henderson, Ky., track pay the bills and remains its only source of income. The Pea Patch, though, has joined the past tense. Ron Geary, who purchased Ellis Park from Churchill Downs in 2006, said on Tuesday that after denial by a federal judge of a request for an injunction that would allow transmission of the track’s simulcast signal nationally to advance-deposit account wagering outlets he will not open Ellis Park, which was to launch a summer meeting on Friday.

Ellis Park is the first victim of a revenue sharing dispute between Churchill Downs and Kentucky horsemen, who under federal law have the right to block interstate transmission of races. Betting receipts at Churchill Downs are down sharply, as they are at Calder, the Churchill-owned Miami racetrack embroiled in a similar conflict with Florida horsemen. Both disputes, which have resulted in sharp purse cuts, are acrimonious and appear nowhere near settlement.

Horsemen notified Geary last week that Ellis' races would be blocked, which prompted Geary to file the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit. Geary, who said Ellis operated at a $2.7-million deficit last year, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he will not reopen the facility.

About 400 horses are stabled at Ellis Park. River Downs, near Cincinnati, is the closest racetrack with a summer meeting. The first to depart are said to be bound for Presque Isle Downs, near Erie, Pa. Some may be capable of competing elsewhere, but the owners of horses of the caliber that race at Ellis, denied a summer home in Kentucky, are faced with limited options. -- PM