Fair Grounds filing disputed

The Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, Fair Grounds Race Course's major creditor in its pending Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, has lodged an objection in bankruptcy court over the track's disclosure statement. Fair Grounds filed the disclosure statement, along with its bankruptcy plan, with the court on April 19.

The horsemen's filing contends that the Fair Grounds disclosure statement "is riddled with misinformation, an incomplete reporting of facts, and suffers from material omissions, and/or contradictions." The filing calls the disclosure statement "so deficient in providing adequate and correct information that the preparation of a new disclosure statement may be the quickest method to dispose of many objections." Moreover, the filing urges the court to deny the disclosure statement because the "accompanying plan is uncomfirmable in its present form."

A court hearing on the objection is scheduled for June 24.

Fair Grounds' reorganization plan calls for an auction of the track in bankruptcy court, but there is no specific timetable. Fair Grounds was judged by the state's Supreme Court last year to owe the horsemen's group nearly $90 million for improper video poker machine deductions. Fair Grounds has declined offers to buy the track from Churchill Downs, and from former Fair Grounds owner Louie Roussel.