TOPSHAM

Smokintheboyzroom trotted around the Topsham Fairgrounds racetrack this week toting a sulky and driver, unaware he’ll soon be evicted.

After today, neither Smokintheboyzroom nor any other racehorse will be boarded at the last of the fair’s harness racing barns.

Citing financial issues, the Topsham Fair Association board voted unanimously about seven months ago to evict current boarders. The evictions, originally set for Oct. 15, are due today.

After the three horses leave, the Association — also known as the Sagadahoc Agricultural and Horticultural Society — plans to gut the barn and use it for storage.

Anne and Skip Cunningham of Brunswick have secured a home for Smokintheboyzroom, a 9-year-old standardbred — as well as 13-year-old Tyguy — near a track further from their home, in Bowdoin.

But Skip Cunningham said the couple, both of whom are members of the fair association, has boarded horses in Topsham for more than 30 years.

“It’s kind of rough,” he said Monday.

“It’s a second home,” Anne Cunningham added.

The decision to evict racehorses has caused some to worry about the future of harness racing in Topsham.

Jerry Lamarre, assistant director of harness racing at the track, said there have been only three horses stabled at the 20- stall harness racing barn for the past year or so.

If horses were allowed to be stabled at the fairgrounds, “you know they’re going to race there,” Lamarre said. “And the more horses we have racing, the better.”

Mark Ponziani, a fair member who maintains the racetrack, said the decision should have been made by the membership — not the board — and called the evictions a backdoor way to do away with harness racing.

Leon Brillant — president of the Association who also serves on its 11-member board of directors — rejected that notion.

“We don’t have any problem with horse racing,” he said. “We’re trying to work it out.”

Brillant said harness racing cost the fair association an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 this year.

“We’re trying to run the fair like a business,” Brillant said. “If we lose money in one department, we have to figure out why we’re losing money there. We’ve got to cut costs somehow; otherwise there won’t be a fair.”

Without having to pay for water or electricity, Brillant said the fair can bring in more money per month using the barn for storage than for horses. The structure may be used as a museum down the road, or something else, Brillant said.

Currently, the barn — built in the mid- to late 1980s — needs upkeep the Association cannot afford, he said. The fair may provide a couple of horse stalls for harness racers who stay overnight during fair week, but “we’ll cross that bridge down the road,” Brillant said.

The Topsham Fair Association has approximately 350 members, but only 20 or 30 come to board meetings on Monday nights, Brilliant said.

According to current bylaws, Topsham Fair Association members must be from Sagadahoc County, Brunswick, Durham, Lisbon, Lisbon Falls, Sabattus or Lewiston. There is a new $35 fee for membership, which also requires 10 hours of volunteer service at the fair.

The monthly fee for a stall was $50, according to Brillant. The Cunnninghams said their lease agreement set the stall rental charge at $35 a month.

Facing eviction, the Cunninghams say they need to have their horses near a track. It’s too difficult and expensive for them to load the horses into a trailer and transport them to a racetrack to practice, they said.

Skip Cunningham said there were plans to rebuild the barn about five years ago, but that never happened.

“There used to be all kinds of barns here,” he said, “and there still could have been.”

“We were begging them to build stalls, because we’ve had people come wanting stalls, and they wouldn’t even think of it,” Anne Cunningham said of the Topsham Fair Association, which has the responsibility to maintain the barn.

She said requested repairs have not been made to the barns “for some time.”

Ponziani questioned the legality of the two eviction notices — issued in March and September — and said the Cunninghams have an active lease agreement.

“There seems to be a conflict of who has the power over the fairgrounds,” said Ponziani, who said his interest in the matter is to support the Cunninghams until they find somewhere to go.

“No matter what,” he said, “they should reserve at least 10 stalls for people during fair week so they can come here and race a couple of horses.”

Brillant said a Topsham Fair Association board member offered to provide stalls for the Cunninghams’ horses in his Bowdoinham barn for the same price — a claim the Cunninghams deny.

Lamarre, who served on the state horse racing commission for 6 1/2 years, said harness racing is under financial duress at fairs across Maine, not just the Topsham Fair.

It would be a sad day to see race horses leave the fairgrounds, he said.

Lamarre said he wants to see more stalls built in the barn, and for the Topsham Fair Association to look to the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association for interested horsemen to fill them.

Asked if he sees that as a valid revenue source, he said: “If the will was there, absolutely.”

“If we do away with horse racing, it will be up to the members, but we don’t plan on doing away with it right now,” Brillant said. “We’d like to keep horse racing; we’ve had it for 158 years. But if we’re going to lose money, it’s like having a business. If you lose money you just can’t keep going.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com