REVERE – Suffolk Downs employees said they are hopeful and optimistic that they might return to work after an agreement was reached for horsemen to lease the racetrack for the next two years.”It’s going to take them a year or two to figure out what they want to do with the property – maintain it, break it off and sell it, or develop it,” Jay Bernardini, a trainer at the track and a vice president of the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (NEHBPA), said Monday. “In the meantime, instead of letting the racetrack lay dormant, they would lease it to us in a way that would let us continue to race.”The horsemen and Suffolk Downs announced last week that they had reached an agreement for the horsemen to lease the track for live racing in 2015 and 2016.But the agreement is contingent upon the state legislature’s extending live racing and simulcasting within the next few weeks. It also requires the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to approve a live racing license and change the rule on how casino revenue earmarked for horse racing is spent.Suffolk Downs in Revere and East Boston held what many feared would be its last races in history this October, less than a month after a Mohegan Sun proposal for a casino at the racetrack was passed over by the gaming commission for a Wynn casino in Everett.Supporters of the Revere casino proposal estimated the closure would eliminate about 1,000 jobs dependent on Suffolk Downs and effectively kill the state’s Thoroughbred racing industry.The casino legislation also included, however, a stipulation that 9 percent of gaming revenue and money from casino licensing fees be dedicated to support the racehorse industry through a racehorse development fund, Bernardini said.The agreement between the horsemen and Suffolk Downs stipulates that the horsemen will use money from this fund to lease the racetrack from Suffolk Downs as well as pay the purse money, Bernardini said. This would prevent Suffolk Downs from operating at a loss – as it has for the last several years – and allow the races to continue, potentially saving jobs. “We are optimistic that our horsemen will be able to race at Suffolk Downs and the local breeders may remain in business for the next two years. We are thankful for the wisdom, cooperation and hard work of all the parties involved,” NEHBPA President Anthony Spadea, who represents about 900 Thoroughbred owners and trainers, said in a prepared statement.Bernardini said a similar arrangement, where money from a casino not located at a racetrack is used to supplement the Thoroughbred industry, has worked in Maryland.Suffolk Downs chief operating officer Chip Tuttle said in the joint statement with Spadea that he was glad the agreement allowed “an interim solution that will keep people working as the horsemen pursue their long term plans and as we explore development options.”For any of this to happen, lawmakers must rewrite a bill to change how the money from simulcasting is divided so that Suffolk can remain solvent (the current bill is set to expire March 31). The gaming commission must grant the license to the NEHBPA and allow the racehorse development funds to be used for lease payments to Suffolk Downs and for purse money.As such, the length of the live racing season remains undetermined; the agreement calls for from one day up to 50 days of live racing, pending on the money from the racehorse development fund that can be used for purses.For some workers at Suffolk Downs, the news brought hope.Mutuels clerk Doris Grillo, 55, said she last worked at Suffolk Downs the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Like all clerks, she calls every day the track is open to see if she is needed, while simulcasting continues.”It hasn’t been fun,” she said.Grillo said people talked about the horsemen and Suffolk Downs trying to keep the racetrack open, and was hoping this agreement would be reached.”I don’t know how that will affect a lot of us, me included,” Grillo said. “I’m trying