Hardwick votes down racetrack
Photo | LandVest
Great Meadowbrook Farm is a 360-acre former dairy farm in Hardwick.
The voters in Hardwick on Saturday decided they don’t want a racetrack. According to the town’s unofficial tally from Saturday’s special election regarding the future of Great Meadowbrook Farm, 830 people voted against the special permit for the race track, outnumbering the 312 yes votes in favor of the track, in addition to four blank ballots.
The voter turnout in town was 1,146 residents, 61% of the 1,886 registered voters in Hardwick, according to the town’s 2021 town report.
The special election was held to decide what to do with Great Meadowbrook Farm, once Goodfield Dairy Farm, after the selectmen in town held three separate votes with separate outcomes in regards to the proposed horse breeding and training facility, sanctuary for retired racehorses, and race track called the Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center. The people behind it include Richard Fields, one of the former owners of Suffolk Downs in Revere
The project has a purchase-and-sale agreement in place ending in February, otherwise the 395-acre property will continue to be owned by Weidong “Wilson” Wang, the owner of Baba Sushi in Worcester, who purchased the farm in 2021.
“It was pretty profound,” Kate Stillman said in a phone interview on Monday about the vote.
Stillman owns Stillman Quality Meats and has been an active opponent of the proposed race track. She was impressed with how many people in town turned out to have their votes counted, particularly early when a steady stream of cars rolled into the Hardwick Elementary School parking lot.
“People wanted their votes counted,” she said.
Stillman said there is now work to be done with Great Meadowbrook Farm, and she isn’t breathing a sigh of relief until she sees tail lights from the group proposing the project.
As for the future of horse racing in Massachusetts, it’s getting bleak. The last race took place in June of 2019 at Suffolk Downs in East Boston and the Hardwick defeat came on the heels of losing a similar election in October 2021 in Sturbridge.
Officials from Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center didn’t respond to requests from comment on Monday morning.
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