ORC Chair Rod Seiling has distributed an open letter to the industry regarding the status of contracts at both Hiawatha Horse Park and Sudbury Downs. The ORC was informed on December 31 that simulcast operations would be shut down effective the next day, January 1, 2010. Under the Commission’s mandate to act in the public interest, the Chair has asked ORC Executive Director John Blakney to immediately find a way to have the parties to the respective disputes reopen the markets so that horse racing’s customers can continue to watch and wager and the industry earn revenues that flow back to the entire horse racing industry.