With the stroke of a judge's pen, the race is on for an off-track betting parlor at Colonial Beach.

The contest features two mismatched contestants, a wide-open course, few rules, many uncertainties and an unknown outcome.

The local favorite seems to be Tom Flanagan, a longtime Colonial Beach businessman whose Riverboat OTB parlor on a pier in the Maryland waters of the Potomac River was wrecked last year by Hurricane Isabel.

Flanagan's opponent is Colonial Downs, Virginia's only parimutuel racetrack. The track in New Kent County is a subsidiary of Jacobs Entertainment Inc., a Colorado-based gambling enterprise with $245 million in assets.

Colonial Downs wants to open four new OTB sites in Virginia, including one in Westmoreland County, possibly within the town limits of Colonial Beach.

This week, Colonial Downs' workers gathered the last of 979 signatures, or 5 percent of the county voters registered Jan. 1 that state law requires for OTB referendums.

Yesterday, Circuit Judge Harry T. Taliaferro III signed an order to put the OTB question on the Westmoreland County ballot Nov. 2.

The stakes are economic, symbolic and high.

If Flanagan wins, Maryland will keep tax revenues from the Riverboat's OTB parlor, liquor store, restaurant, lottery and Keno operations, but Colonial Beach will regain a gambling pier that has been a waterfront landmark and tourist attraction for 50 years.

If Colonial Downs wins, Westmoreland County might earn $92,000 a year in new tax revenues and Virginia about $250,000, Colonial Downs President Ian Stewart said.

Fervent local politics in Colonial Beach, a town of 3,200, will undoubtedly influence the contest. Town Councilwoman Ann Congdon recently sent petitions signed by 3,000 residents and summer visitors urging Maryland Gov. Robert Erlich Jr. to help Flanagan rebuild.

"The value of the Riverboat transcends its economic and historical terms," Congdon wrote. "It is also defined by the personal relationships between Tom and Penny Flanagan and our community."