Scarborough Downs officials were tightlipped this week about what options they were considering amid speculation in the industry that the owner could try to move the track following the Election Day defeat of a development proposal that included slot machines.

Ed MacColl, Scarborough Downs attorney, said track officials were weighing all of their options, but he declined to elaborate on what those might be.

“That’s what we’re doing at this point,” MacColl said. “That’s all I can say at this point, but they’re not ruling anything out.”

The proposal to develop the 535 acres owned by the track lost by just 239 votes, 5,565-5,804, in an election that drew a record number to the polls. The vote had a cliffhanger ending, as results were delayed until the day after Election Day by a malfunctioning ballot machine.

Despite the the narrow margin, it was the second defeat for slot machines in Scarborough, making the possibility of slots ever coming to the track at its longtime location in Scarborough unlikely, if not impossible, and fueling speculation in the industry that the track’s owner might be eyeing other locations.

“I think people in the industry are shocked that the town of Scarborough could be that short-sighted,” said Denise McKnit, head veterinarian with Blackstrap Hill Veterinary Clinic in Cumberland, which works closely with the Maine harness racing industry. “I would be very surprised if they do not consider moving because they are a business and they need to make a good business decision … I know Sanford has been mentioned.”

Downs officials had proposed adding slots to the track as a part of a $200 million commercial and residential development that would give the town a center and $8 million in annual revenues. Pitched by Gene Beaudoin, the Connecticut developer who was behind bringing a Cabela’s outdoor sporting goods store to town, the proposal had the backing of Penn National Gaming Inc., which spent more than $60,000 on a campaign in support of the project.

After the vote, however, Beaudoin was unequivocal. “It’s not dead in the water, it’s dead,” he said.

The debate was at times divisive and emotional in recent weeks, as town leaders came out publicly in support and opposition to the proposal. A local group, Save Our Scarborough, formed in opposition to the project.

“It tore the town – it split it right down the middle,” said Mark Maroon, a former town councilor and leader of Save Our Scarborough.

A law passed by statewide referendum in 2003 allows slot machines at existing harness racing tracks with local approval, leading to Hollywood Slots at the state’s other harness racing track in Bangor. Scarborough Downs, however, has found approval to be much more difficult to win in southern Maine. Saco and Westbrook have also rejected proposals to allow slot machines associated with the Downs.

Industry insiders say they wonder about the future of harness racing without slots in southern Maine. Proponents of the slot proposal said the revenue would have increased the purses, which would have in turn increased the quality of the racing. That won’t happen now, said Rep. Don Marean, R-Hollis, who lost a re-election bid for his legislative seat on Election Day to Democrat Rob Hunt.

“I know it affects me,” said Marean, who lives in Hollis and owns and operates Lindon Farms in Buxton. “That no vote that just came from Scarborough will have a huge impact on the upcoming breeding season. People will draw back and they won’t breed. It will make it difficult.”

According to a recent Maine Department of Agriculture study, horse racing has a $100 million impact in the state. Not having a racino won’t kill the industry, McKnitt said, but it won’t help.

“As long as our money doesn’t go down the tubes in Augusta, we’re not going to be worse off than now. We’re just not going to get better,” she said. “You have to have enough money to buy better horses for racing and without better racing you won’t attract the clients.”

Two men who work with horses at Scarborough Downs experienced euphoria and then disappointment, as word around the track, they said, had been hopeful about a slots parlor being approved by voters.

“It was the first time in a long time I’ve seen the barns on an upswing,” said Richard Flanders, a horse driver for 43 years. “It’s kind of like taking a pin to a balloon.”

Drew Campbell, who has owned, trained and driven horses at the Scarborough racetrack for two decades, said the disappointing finish felt a little like being wrung though a ringer.

“The first I heard was, it passed,” Campbell said.

Voters exiting the polls Nov. 4 cited some of the same arguments made on both sides of the issue. Their concerns largely boiled down to the tax revenues a slots parlor would have brought to town for capital improvements or tax relief and, on the other side, social costs of possible surges in crime and traffic associated with larger-scale gambling. Another touted benefit was a racino’s ability to boost the struggling southern Maine harness racing business, which has been subsidized at the Downs by racetrack owner Sharon Terry and her daughter, Denise Terry.

“Now our industry and our business is looking very bleak because of the letdown,” said Campbell.

“This industry needed (slot machines) bad,” agreed Flanders. “It’s a dying sport without them.”

Marean, while disappointed with the outcome, said he doesn’t think the harness racing industry in Maine will die, but it will struggle.

“If they got slot machines, all it does is allow the track to expand its resources, and people don’t see that,” Marean said. “If the industry needs to help Scarborough find a new location, then it will do that. We’ve seen hard times before and we’ll get through it again.”

Maroon expressed hope that track owner Terry and her family would be able to navigate through the racino’s defeat.

“I don’t think anyone wants horse racing to die – I know I don’t,” Maroon said.

“Personally, I don’t know how much longer they’ll fight,” Flanders said.

For Maroon, the most immediate aspect of winning the referendum is that it spares Scarborough from further “battles” during the next few years over the project, which would have required state approvals, negotiations between Beaudoin and the Town Council and a second local referendum.

“I think it would have done serious damage to the town,” Maroon said.

He added that he would like to see Beaudoin or other developers work with Terry to support the Downs as long as it didn’t involve slots.

Terry did not return Current phone calls seeking comment.