Horse Racing Notes : A Family Fight Could Level Gulfstream Park

In a half-century of stewardship, the Donn family has established Gulfstream Park as one of the East’s most important, skillfully managed racetracks, the cumulative product of the careers of founder Jimmy Donn Sr.; his son, Jimmy Donn Jr., and grandson, Doug Donn.

The tradition of skillful, farsighted management has resulted in the track’s becoming Florida’s most prosperous winter quarters for many of the East’s leading stables, a major staging area for Triple Crown-bound 3-year-olds and host of the 1989 Breeders’ Cup.

Although Gulfstream is prospering, all is not well in Hallandale. The track, located north of Miami, announced the second purse increase of the current meeting this week because of a continued upsurge in attendance and handle over last year’s record figures. It is embroiled, however, in a family squabble that could determine whether it remains one of the nation’s top 10 racing establishments or is sold for development.

The Flipses and the Donns -- the two families that descended from Jimmy Donn Sr. -- are fighting for control of Exotic Gardens, a family-owned floral company that owns 48.8-percent interest in the track. The future of Gulfstream Park hangs in the balance of a power struggle over a chain of florists.

“I think there could be many motivations -- just being in control, grabbing an opportunity to grasp control over the whole corporation, which includes effective control over Gulfstream Park,” Donn Flipse said. In Dade Circuit Court Friday, the Flipse plaintiffs charged the Donns are illegally wresting control of the family company to thwart the sale of Gulfstream.

“What you have here is a crude attempt to seize control of a company, half of which happens to belong to another family that has a right not to be held hostage,” said Joseph Klock, attorney for the Flipses.

The suit claims the Exotic Gardens board of directors voted 5-1, with Doug Donn dissenting, in October to sell the track. But in December, one of the Donns challenged John Hall’s right to vote by proxy for his wife, Carol Flipse Hall. The Flipses fought back by challenging the right of Doug Donn’s mother, Mary Anna Fowler, to vote her stock by proxy. “The Donns then seized control of the meeting, and elected a slate of new members to the board with seven of their own number,” Klock said.

Meanwhile, the track, which the Donn family has long maintained will be preserved for racing, is situated on a prime 250-acre tract about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. The Flipses believe the property is worth $100 million or more. “As they are currently structured, neither the racetrack nor the floral business offers our families an acceptable return on our investment,” said Donn Flipse, who has hired a public relations firm as well as an attorney to represent his family. “Unfortunately, my cousins may be putting their egos ahead of what is best for all of us.”

Miami Circuit Court Judge John I. Gordon Wednesday denied three motions for emergency orders made on behalf of the Flipses, one of which would have prevented the Donn proxy. “The rulings,” said the Donns’ attorney, Bernard Mandler, “preserve the status quo.”

The withdrawal of Cherokee Colony from Sunday’s Strub Stakes at Santa Anita was a disappointment, but the performance of European import Nasr El Arab in his main-track debut makes the March 5 Santa Anita Handicap more interesting and lends much needed depth to the handicap division.

Nasr El Arab was sent from Europe for a successful campaign in fall turf stakes, then was turned over to trainer Charlie Whittingham for his 4-year-old campaign. He is an impressive, long-bodied, thickly muscled colt who won the Strub over a muddy track like a very good racehorse, sweeping the field from well behind the pace and winning in fast time under the circumstances, a shade over 2:02. He was, however, the only member of a suspect field capable of staying 10 furlongs. That advantage likely will be lessened in the Big ‘Cap when he meets Cherokee Colony, who was scratched because of the wet track.

The Strub victory was sufficient to vault Nasr El Arab to the top of the season’s first poll compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Communications. His performance indicated he may be a regular fixture in the nation’s top 10. His stablemate, Goodbye Halo, who began her 4-year-old season with a victory in the La Canada at Santa Anita, and Cryptoclearance, who won the 9-furlong Donn Handicap at Gulfstream, vaulted into second and third.

The poll reflects the early lack of focus in virtually every division to which Kentucky Derby favorite Easy Goer does not belong. Seven horses received first-place votes from 37 voters, who listed a total of 45 on their ballots, some as unlikely as Its Acedemic and Pok Ta Pok. Half the top 10 has yet to start in 1989.

Reaction to the New York Racing Association’s recent announcement that races here will be timed in tenths of seconds rather than fifths beginning with the spring meeting at Belmont has been mixed, but is generally regarded as a small, long-overdue step in the right direction.

Race times measured in fifths have long been antiquated, a throwback to the days when mechanical stopwatches, which were calibrated in fifths, were in use. Meanwhile, most races not involving horses are timed in hundredths nowadays while the antique standard at racetracks has remained intact. Racing has an uncanny knack for remaining oblivious to the real world.

Most clockers, horsemen and handicappers now use watches that measure in hundredths, so NYRA’s move to display tenths is less radical than it appears; rather like reinventing the Edsel. It will, however, create some confusion, because no other track appears anxious to follow suit. The Racing Form will display a mixture of both timing methods in the past-performance charts of horses that are shipped into and out of Belmont.