A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

The race is on and here comes Political Payback in the back stretch, with Hubris moving to the inside…

I rarely ever read The Business Monthly, but I happened to pick up this month’s copy and a picture on the front page may have answered a question that I always had about the proposed Maryland horse park. It was a picture of Ken Ulman’s father standing next to a race horse in the winner’s circle. Of course, the picture is not in the article that is online.

Ken Ulman appointed three horse industry hacks, including a “personal representative”, to the Horse Park Task Force that was charged with the task of deciding if Howard County should put a bid in to the State of Maryland to locate the park here. I have always been surprised that Ulman apparently supported the idea of this park. I hate to put people in buckets, but Ulman makes no bones about the fact that he is a liberal democrat, and a redistribution of wealth from all taxpayers to rich taxpayers in the form of a horse park is not something that I would expect a liberal democrat to support. However, the Business Monthly clued me in to the fact that Ulman’s father was a former chairperson for the completely useless Maryland Racing Commission, as well as a racehorse owner. I am sure that other influential democrats (and republicans) are waist deep in the horse industry and are pushing for this park to further their own interests at the expense of everyone else.

Papa Ulman had this to say about the horse industry:

Lou Ulman, a senior principal with the Offit Kurman law firm in Maple Lawn who is also a member of the MRC and a past chair, is among those who have suffered the negative consequences of declining purses in Maryland.

Only three years ago Ulman owned 20 thoroughbred race horses, either outright or in other partnerships. Today, that number has dwindled to nine that are all owned in partnership. Almost all of his horses are located in Maryland, but at least four run in races out of state, where purses are higher.

"It's becoming too expensive to keep them here," Ulman said, "and I believe we will be seeing more horsemen who will simply get out [of Maryland] if they can cut their losses."

That's not the route Ulman wants to take, but the choice might not be his to make.
"I wouldn't get out [of racing] totally," he said. "But there's always the chance that a trainer might move to another state and would take the horses with him."

And the winner is Crooked Politician with Taxpayers coming in last.

Update: the horse park has a website. From there, you can access a .pdf of the Maryland Feasibility Study that is not on the County's website but is referenced in the task force's report.