Churchill completes deal to acquire interest in harness track, casino

Churchill Downs Inc. has completed a previously announced deal to acquire a one-quarter interest in the company that owns a harness track and casino in Saratoga, N.Y., CDI and the company announced on Friday.

The completion of the deal, which is valued at approximately $24.8 million, crystallizes the financial relationship between the two companies 10 months after New York regulators rejected a combined bid by the companies for a casino license near Albany. The financial deal was announced two months after the companies struck a deal to submit a combined bid for the casino, which was one of 16 applications for three new casinos licenses in upstate New York.

In addition to a 25 percent stake in Saratoga Raceway and Casino – a harness track located near Saratoga Race Course, the popular Thoroughbred track – the deal will make Churchill a co-owner of a joint venture in managing the Gideon Putnam Hotel and Resort in Saratoga. The joint venture is between the company that owns the Saratoga harness track and Delaware North Cos.

The Saratoga harness track and casino are currently undergoing a $40 million hotel expansion designed to shore up the property at a time when it will face competition from the three new upstate casinos approved by the commission to submit license applications. The expansion project is expected to be completed in the late spring.