Greyhound racing to end in Bay State

REVERE – Tuesday’s ballot question banning dog racing failed in Lynn, Saugus and Revere, but statewide support for Question Three spells the end for an industry that once drew crowds to the sprawling North Shore Road racetrack.”There go our jobs,” said Leslie Deland, a 15-year Wonderland worker who currently works at the track selling Keno cards and Lottery tickets. Her daughter, Virginia, works in the track commissary.A coalition of racing foes mustered thousands of signatures to put the ban on the ballot and campaigned across the state, urging a phase of what one proponent called “a dying industry” by 2010.”Voters have sent a clear message that we will not tolerate an industry that causes thousands of dogs to endure lives of terrible confinement and many to suffer serious injury,” Question Three spokesman Carey Theil said.Voters in Lynn, Revere and Saugus where track workers and kennel operators live, defeated the question. Ironically, Three’s statewide win came after two pieces of financial good news for Wonderland.The track paid off a $752,000 property tax debt last week and, in August, signed a tentative deal to join forces with Suffolk Downs in a bid to attract casinos to the tracks.Wonderland applied for what now appears to be its last racing schedule in its three quarter century history on Oct. 30. The Racing Commission will vote on the schedule on Nov. 15.Deland and 350 other people work at Wonderland, many of whom live in Revere. Ban proponents claim assistance can be made available to help the workers find new jobs but Deland said many of the workers are over 65.”Where are we going to go?”