Michigan track sues over license

Northville Downs, a harness track in suburban Detroit, filed an appeal Monday to rescind the racing license granted last month to Magna Entertainment Corp.

Citing language in the Michigan Racing Act of 1995 that prohibits "unfair competition" in the granting of new licenses, attorney Ed Draugelis filed the appeal in Wayne County Circuit Court and delivered it to the office of the state racing commissioner the next day.

On May 17, acting state racing commissioner Christine White granted a license to Magna Entertainment Corp. to build a track in the western Detroit suburb of Romulus. The area has been without live Thoroughbred racing since Detroit Race Course closed in 1998.

Draugelis said that the construction of a track 14 miles from Northville Downs would devastate the harness track because it would lose simulcasting patrons.