Suffolk Downs fire puts simulcasting on hold

Simulcasting operations at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Mass., are on hold after a late-night fire destroyed the track’s television control room and other facilities, according to the chief executive of the company that runs the track.

Chip Tuttle, the CEO of Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, said that the fire consumed an entire two-story building that sits atop the Suffolk grandstand. The building housed the press box, the stewards’ stand, an office for placing judges, the announcer’s booth, and the “closed-circuit TV studio and control room” that was central to the track’s simulcasting operations, Tuttle said.

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Suffolk Downs has not held live racing since 2019, but the track has been open for in-house simulcasting since that time. Tuttle said that approximately 1,500 customers were onsite for the track’s recent simulcast of the Kentucky Derby, and that regular weekend attendance for simulcasting operations is in the “high hundreds.”

“We’re hoping to reopen in a limited capacity for the Belmont,” Tuttle said, referring to the June 11 Belmont Stakes. “Having said that, we’re still figuring a lot of things out, and whether we can open by that time is yet to be determined.”

Simulcasting operations are conducted on the first floor of the grandstand, which was not directly damaged by the fire.

According to local fire officials, the fire started sometime around 9 p.m. on Monday. It was not contained until early Tuesday morning.

Tuttle said that the last employee in the building left at around 6 p.m. on Monday. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

“We’re as curious as anyone as to how it happened,” Tuttle said.