THOROUGHBRED RACING : It Is Hard to Find Many Positives in Upcoming State-of-Sport Report

According to R.D. Hubbard, the state takes in about $180 million annually as its share of betting on horse races in California.

“It’s the only business I know, where you’re taxed on your gross sales instead of on your profits,” Hollywood Park’s board chairman said.

Despite that revenue, the California Horse Racing Board didn’t have a public relations specialist until recently, and it hired an equine medical director only a couple of years before that. Both hires were overdue and much needed, coming in the aftermath of the mishandled scandal in which prominent trainers, including Wayne Lukas and the late Laz Barrera, were accused of using cocaine on their horses. The charges were never proved, and Lukas and Barrera spent more than $100,000 each in legal fees to keep their reputations clean.

Public relations had become the racing board’s weakest suit. “I heard about those charges on my radio,” said Bill Lansdale, a member of the racing board. An apoplectic Lukas learned that he was implicated through a phone call from a reporter.

Still, Lansdale had to be convinced that paying about $200,000 a year for an equine director would not be an extravagance.

“We have to preserve the integrity of the sport,” said Don Robbins, president of Hollywood Park. “The public’s perception is awfully important. Integrity is tantamount to our success.”

That $180 million--and the hundreds of millions that other states derive from racing--will be an inviting target in a couple of years for the nation’s tracks, which are fresh from ending an unseemly showdown with the Jockeys’ Guild over health and accident insurance.

“There are three partners in racing--the tracks, the states and the horsemen,” said Churchill Downs’ Tom Meeker, who is president of the Thoroughbred Racing Assns., the trade organization that represents most of the major tracks. “Only the tracks are paying (for the jockeys’ insurance). As one of the partners, the states should be prepared down the line in getting financially involved in this.”

As a result of the recent agreement with the jockeys, tracks will be paying $576 a racing day to cover the cost of the premiums.

“That amount doesn’t sound like a lot of money,” Meeker said. “And for a Santa Anita, or a Churchill Downs or a Belmont Park, it may not be. But there are a lot of other tracks out there that can’t afford that kind of money, as bad as business has been.”

When Meeker delivers his state-of-the-sport address at the TRA convention in Las Vegas later this month, he will be hard-pressed to find many positive signs. Last week, the Eclipse Award of Merit committee conferred about the honor for 1991, and one of the members discreetly suggested that it be left vacant for a year.

The year-end numbers are there for anyone to see: Saratoga, down 14% in attendance and 7% in betting; Garden State Park, off 15% and 13%; Philadelphia Park, minus 18% and 16%; Remington Park, a slump of 11% and 7%; Tampa Bay Downs, a dip of 11% and 4%.

Cross-town off-track betting arrived just in time in Los Angeles to serve as a buffer for the recession, but local officials are still disturbed by the size of the dropoffs in on-track business.

Fairmount Park, one of the small tracks Tom Meeker obliquely refers to, is an Illinois operation with a strong St. Louis audience across the Mississippi River. The stark numbers for Fairmount last year showed a free fall of 6% in attendance and 21% in handle.

Now, the Mississippi is, in effect, becoming one of the enemies. Riverboat gambling has been legalized along the river, and groups from both the Missouri and Illinois sides have applied for licenses. One of the applicants is the son of the principal owner of Sportsman’s Park, a track 300 miles north of Fairmount, in a Chicago suburb.

Riverboat gambling, like dry-dock casinos, is just another brand of hemlock, racing executives say. Eventually, riverboat gambling could come to Lake Michigan, and then Fairmount Park’s headache will be shared by Sportsman’s Park.

Despite racing’s coast-to-coast malaise, Hubbard is indefatigable in expanding his interests. His empire includes Hollywood Park, horse tracks in New Mexico and Kansas and a greyhound operation in Oregon. The Kansas track, the Woodlands, had double-digit shrinkage in business last year, with the companion greyhound operation there picking up some of the slack.

Last year, Hubbard thought better of a venture to revitalize Longacres, the horse track near Seattle, but he’s in the thick of a battle to secure a racing license and build a track between Dallas and Ft. Worth, where he has a residence.

Horse Racing Notes

The leading vote-getters have been announced in the Eclipse Awards balloting for 1991. There were no surprises. The winners will be announced in Las Vegas on Feb. 1, several hours before the Eclipse Awards dinner. The leading vote-getters, in alphabetical order by category:

Horse of the year--Arazi, Black Tie Affair, Dance Smartly; 2-year-old colt--Agincourt, Arazi, Bertrando; 2-year-old filly--American Royale, Easy Now, Pleasant Stage; 3-year-old colt--Best Pal, Hansel, Olympio; 3-year-old filly--Dance Smartly, Lite Light, Flawlessly; Older male--Black Tie Affair, Farma Way, In Excess; Older filly or mare--A Wild Ride, Queena, Safely Kept; Male turf--Exbourne, Opening Verse, Sky Classic, Tight Spot; Female turf--Flawlessly, Miss Alleged, Miss Josh; Sprinter--Housebuster, Safely Kept, Sheikh Albadou; Steeplechase--Morley Street, Victorian Hill, Yaw; Trainer--Jim Day, Wayne Lukas, Ron McAnally; Jockey--Jerry Bailey, Pat Day, Chris McCarron; Apprentice jockey--Fabio Arguello Jr., Gwen Jocson, Mickey Walls; Owner--John Franks, Allen Paulson, Sam-Son Farm; Breeder--John and Betty Mabee, Allen Paulson, Sam-Son Farm.

Former jockey Darrel McHargue, a steward at Turf Paradise in Phoenix for the last three years, will replace retiring steward Charles E. Dougherty when Golden Gate Fields opens its spring meeting Jan. 30. . . . The Racing Times, the past performance paper launched last April, will switch to a tabloid format for its West Coast edition this weekend. As a special introductory offer, the paper’s price is being reduced from $2.50 to $2.

Olympio and Best Pal, who are likely to be outdistanced by Hansel in voting for the divisional title, are among nine 4-year-olds entered in Saturday’s $200,000 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita. The 1 1/8-mile race, middle leg in the Strub Series, brings together three of the first four finishers in the Malibu on Dec. 26, when Olympio beat Charmonnier by a neck at seven furlongs as Dinard, in his first start in about eighth months, finished fourth. . . . The post-position lineup has Multiengine, with Chris McCarron riding, on the fence, then Reign Road, with Laffit Pincay; Gold Dominion, Corey Black; Best Pal, Kent Desormeaux; Dinard, Pat Valenzuela; Charmonnier, Corey Nakatani; Quintana, Joe Steiner; Choice Is Clear, Frank Alvarado, and Olympio, Eddie Delahoussaye. Olympio and Best Pal will each carry 122 pounds; Dinard and Charmonnier are at 120, the others at 116. . . . Olympio had a four-furlong blowout Thursday in :46 4/5, second-fastest time on the tab. . . . Kostroma, who set a world record for 1 1/8 miles on grass with a time of 1:43 4/5 in the Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita last October, has been sidelined indefinitely because of sore feet.