THOROUGHBRED RACING : Racing Times, Latest Challenger to Racing Form, Is Out of Business

The Racing Times, an ambitious newspaper that the late Robert Maxwell launched about 10 months ago to compete with publishing archrival Rupert Murdoch’s Daily Racing Form, went out of business Thursday.

Somewhat of an artistic success, and much more aggressive editorially than the conservative Racing Form, the Racing Times lacked the time to make the market inroads necessary to turn a profit. When Maxwell died mysteriously after going off the side of his yacht near the Canary Islands last November, his international empire was thrown into fiscal chaos and on Thursday the Racing Times became one of what could be many victims.

In a deal that was announced by Mirror Group Newspapers, the publicly held company that ran the Racing Times, K-III Holdings Inc., which had bought the Racing Form from Murdoch, bought most of the Racing Times’ assets, which include computer hardware and software. Mirror Group then announced that the today’s issue of the the Racing Times, which was printed Wednesday, would be the newspaper’s last.

Even before Maxwell’s still-unexplained death, which led to revelations that his companies were several billion dollars in debt, there was an irony that his Racing Times no longer had Murdoch as a target at the Racing Form.

None of the parties involved in Thursday’s transaction would discuss figures, but more than one source close to the sale indicated that the price was in the $10-million range. The arrival of the Racing Times had been costly to both sides: In a finite market where circulation could not be expected to increase because of racing’s attendance doldrums, the Times had cost Maxwell about $5 million in start-up expenses, and was losing close to $1 million a month since then; the Racing Form, losing some circulation and forced to spend more money in order to secure its No. 1 position, was facing a drop in profits, which had been estimated at $26 million annually.

The Racing Times never did announce circulation figures, but on Thursday a spokesman for Mirror Group said the newspaper at its peak sold 18,000 copies a day. He estimated that the January circulation was about 10,000. Before the Racing Times started, the Racing Forms’ daily circulation was estimated at 100,000.

The Racing Times, which had offices in New York, Lexington, Ky., and the Los Angeles area, was not yet in all the racing markets, as the Racing Form is, but was covering major racing on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in California. The Times employed about 150 people full-time, including some of the most recognized turf writers in the country. Maxwell had hired away Steven Crist of the New York Times to be his editor-in-chief.

Shortly after Maxwell’s death, brokers world-wide were told that the Racing Times was for sale. Dozens of potential buyers inquired, including horse breeders and two of the three owners of Strike the Gold, the winner of last year’s Kentucky Derby, but none of them ever made an offer.

“The (operating) losses were higher than expected,” said Charles Wilson, a spokesman for Mirror Group. “Then when it was learned that Mr. Maxwell had used more than $1 billion in pension moneys from his other companies, that created an enormous black hole in Mirror Group.”

Rumors had circulated for weeks that the Times was going to fold, but the newspaper continued to try to turn things around. In California, where the Racing Form is sold in tabloid size, the Times began as a broadsheet, which most racing fans found awkward to use. A few weeks ago, when the Times went to a size similar to the Form’s and dropped the price 50 cents under the Form, to $2, circulation picked up dramatically.

Still, many California bettors were reluctant to buy the Times. “I thought that the Andy Beyer (handicapping) speed figures are terrific,” said William Murray, a Del Mar-based novelist whose books usually have racing backdrops. “But many of my friends that I go to the track with told me that they didn’t want to take the time--even if it was only 10 minutes--to learn how to read the Times’ different format.”

Many Racing Times staffers were not notified Thursday that the paper had folded. In Miami, Fla., Dale Austin, covering Gulfstream Park, said that he had filed five stories Thursday for Saturday’s paper, an issue that isn’t being published.

Some tracks, lulled into complacency because of coverage from the Racing Form that frequently resembled a house-organ approach, were disturbed by the brashness of the Racing Times. A Times correspondent was temporarily banned from the Rockingham Park press box because management at the Salem, N.H., track objected to his editorial style. Other tracks, however, welcomed the Racing Form’s competitor, because they felt that it gave their horseplayers a choice of racing information.

A handshake agreement with Equibase, a company hired by the Racing Times to supply charts of races, backfired and cost Mirror Group millions of extra dollars. The Times thought that the charts would be computer-ready, but instead they came into its offices in hard-copy form and an extra staff had to be hired to keyboard the information.

“The tracks (that own Equibase) did not give us the service we had expected,” Wilson said. “At the start, Equibase was going to be the cornerstone of our operation, and it didn’t work out that way.”

Mirror Group owns several profitable publications, including the Daily and Sunday Mirror in London and Great Britain’s Sporting Life, a racing newspaper.

Horse Racing Notes

Laramie Moon, winner of the Santa Monica Handicap on Jan. 19, will face the beaten favorite in that stake, Brought To Mind, and seven other rivals Saturday in the $150,000 Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita. Others entered in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares are Paseana, Campagnarde, Vieille Vigne, Txindoki, Re Toss, Laura Ly and Colour Chart. The high weights are Paseana and Brought To Mind with 120 pounds each, three more than Laramie Moon.

The size of the field for the $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes on Sunday will be affected by the weather, which may be rainy all the way through the weekend. Best Pal, the favorite, likely will start even if the track is off, although trainer Gary Jones has also nominated the gelding for the San Antonio Handicap a week from Saturday. Other probables are Olympio, Dinard, Charmonnier, Another Review, Bucking Bird, Ev for Shir, Quintana and Reign Road. Bob Baffert, who trains Charmonnier, is hoping for muddy going.

Another stake scheduled Sunday is the $100,000 San Vicente Breeders’ Cup for 3-year-olds. Prince Wild, already a stakes winner at the meet, is expected to run, and his opponents may include Mineral Wells, Richard of England, Cape Royale, Sharp Bandit, Star of the Crop, Fax News, Guarantor, Private Policy and Bossanova.