She Got the Gate : Handicapper Sues Racing Form; Sex Bias Is Alleged

When Dorothy Kagan went to work at the Daily Racing Form three years ago, becoming the nation’s first female professional handicapper, nobody made a fuss--least of all her.

“I knew I was making history, but I didn’t care about that,” she said. “I just wanted to be one of the guys.”

In virtually no time, Kagan became something of a celebrity among readers of the venerable 96-year-old publication, establishing herself as woman who knew how to pick a winner. During the spring season of 1989, she ranked as Hollywood Park’s leading handicapper.

While male handicappers at the publication used such pseudonyms as Sweep and Hermis, Kagan’s bosses decided to break with tradition and list her daily horse selections under her name and picture.

She became an instant heroine among female racing fans, and her reputation as an astute handicapper won her a wide following at race tracks throughout Southern California.

But when it came down to the wire, Kagan’s tenure at the tabloid was no storybook finish. Accused of insubordination, she was dumped from her $755-a-week job in February. Kagan insists that she was fired because she was a woman trying to make it in a man’s milieu.

This week, Kagan’s lawyers filed a $3.5-million sex discrimination lawsuit against the Daily Racing Form and its parent firm, News America Corp., contending that her dismissal was unwarranted and that envious male colleagues conspired to make her life at the paper miserable.

“It’s your classic Old Boys Club,” said her attorney, Barry A. Fisher. “They finally rode her off into the sunset.”

Among aficionados, the Daily Racing Form carries the authority of holy writ and has been a fixture in Los Angeles since the turn of the century. The operation here, one of four regional editions, is housed in a bunker-like building next to a Koreatown auto body shop.

According to several staffers, the Los Angeles operation employs about 150 people, a third of them women. “But in the big room (where the handicappers work),” said one staffer, who requested anonymity, “it’s still pretty much a man’s world.”

Kagan, the intensely private daughter of an oil company executive, came to the Racing Form in 1988, where she initially labored under the moniker Sweep. She learned her trade while working as a stable hand at Del Mar race track near San Diego.

“I always said I didn’t want to learn the sport from books,” she said. “It was going to be hands-on or nothing.”

Putting the spotlight on a female handicapper was one of many changes Australian-born publisher Rupert Murdoch wanted instituted at the paper in anticipation of fierce competition from rival publisher Robert Maxwell, who recently purchased the New York Daily News and is bankrolling a new racing publication that debuted last week, The Racing Times.

The decision to let Kagan have her own bylined column made her a star of sorts. But rather than applaud her success, Kagan says, her colleagues “became as cold as ice” and began a campaign to force her out.

Among other things, Kagan contends in her lawsuit that on her days off, fellow handicappers were allowed to make picks under her bylined column, despite her protests. She alleges that they intentionally selected known losers and long shots in an effort to ruin her reputation among bettors.

“They would pick a 30-to-1 shot, cripples, horses that even a long-shot (bettor) wouldn’t touch in desperation,” Kagan said. “They humiliated me. Anybody who didn’t know me would take a look at some of those picks and conclude that I was stupid.”

Kagan said her male colleagues had nude dancers come to the office after hours on special occasions and would show her photos of the festivities the next day. Another prank detailed in the lawsuit was even more outrageously sexist.

Don Fleming, the newspaper’s editor, referred questions about Kagan to General Manager Bill Dow, who did not return numerous phone calls.

But Alan Grodnitzky, a lawyer for News America Corp. in Philadelphia, insisted that Kagan was not mistreated.

“Her dismissal was strictly related to job performance,” he said, suggesting that her problems stemmed from an inability to get along with her co-workers. “She was given repeated warnings that her work was not satisfactory and it was determined that the situation could no longer be tolerated.”

He refused to elaborate, saying that he had not yet seen Kagan’s lawsuit.

Many of Kagan’s loyalists, such as Veda Schmidt, aren’t buying any of that.

“She was terrific,” said the 44-year-old retired postal worker, a frequent bettor at Santa Anita. “I’d go with her picks a lot of times and she’d make me a winner.”

But others offered a different view.

“She’s a good and honest person and I think they did her wrong,” horse trainer Roger Stein said. “But if you ask anyone around the tracks they’ll tell you that some of her charges are ridiculous.

“I mean, so what if they passed nude pictures around the office. What’s it mean, you can’t talk about sex anymore?”

Lawsuit Filed: Ex-Racing handicapper Dorothy Kagan has filed a $3.5-million sex discrimmination lawsuit against the publication contending, among other things, tht other handicappers were allowed to make picks under her byline. Her column, below, appeared several times a week.