HARNESS RACING Developers appeal rejection of license

They said the denial was based on the reputation of their dead grandfather.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Developers of a proposed Lawrence County harness racing track are asking the state Harness Racing Commission to reconsider their application for a fourth and final track license.
The commission had cited possible ties to organized crime as reason for denying Bedford Downs' application last month, but an attorney for Bedford Downs said the company's principals were unfairly branded.
Siblings Carmen Shick, Kendra Tabak and Kenneth Shick wanted to build a mile-long track near New Castle.
Grandfather's past
"Despite finding that each of the Bedford principals were suitable for a racing license, this commission denied the license to Bedford because of several decades-old dealings of a dead patriarch," stated the motion for reconsideration filed Friday.
The decision "branded Bedford's principals with the imprint of 'organized crime,' a notion so inflammatory, especially to Americans of Italian descent, that the mere mention of it is sufficient to destroy instantly any reputation and stigmatize a person for life," Bedford attorney Victor P. Stabile wrote.
The principals' deceased grandfather, Carmen D. Ambrosia, lent reputed mobsters more than $4 million from his mining and construction companies and never sought repayment. The commission called those loans troubling and said that even the appearance of impropriety is grounds to deny a license.
Stabile said the commission failed to consider that Carmen Shick sued to recover the money. The litigation is ongoing, according to the appeal.
"I can only hope that the sheer weight of the facts in our motion for reconsideration will give the commission pause to reconsider and right this injustice," Carmen Shick, president and chief executive officer of Bedford Downs, said in a statement.
"I know the commissioners are men of integrity. I can only believe that the information they relied on was inaccurate at best."
Anton J. Leppler, executive secretary of the state Harness Racing Commission, could not be reached to comment Friday.
Factors
Leppler has previously said that the commission considers several factors in awarding licenses, including the operators' reputations, financial viability, sites' ability to meet racing standards and criminal background checks.
The commission also rejected an application by Indianapolis-based Centaur Inc., which proposed a track in Beaver County. The commission found the site unsuitable. Centaur also plans to appeal, a spokesman said.
The last available harness racing license in Pennsylvania is especially coveted because it would give the winner the inside track to install up to 5,000 slot machines.