Equestrian Center Dispute Threatens Trainers

Los Angeles Equestrian Center executives have told trainers that they might have to scale down their operations and move more than 400 horses out of the city-owned facility because of a contract squabble.

Several trainers said Thursday that General Manager Kenneth Mowry warned them in a special meeting that the cutbacks might be necessary because the city has delayed approval of an amended contract that would reduce the center’s rent by hundreds of thousands of dollars over a five-year period.

A cutback in operations would be devastating to the center’s boarders and trainers. Most of the roughly 20 trainers would be put out of business and boarders would be forced to relocate.

“This is all pretty upsetting for all the trainers,” said Rosey Reed, who has trained horses at the center for more than 10 years. “I don’t want to have to move to another facility. Everything I want is here. This is my livelihood.”

In a brief statement, Mowry said that LAEC Inc., the center’s concessionaire, has been “seriously contemplating reconfiguration of the center to conform to the original concession agreement, since in two years we have not received an amended concession agreement.”

Mowry refused to elaborate.

But several trainers said Mowry told them that the present contract only obligated the center to house 200 horses, and the center was losing money by housing about 640 horses and paying for numerous renovations not required under the contract.

Trainers said center officials also told them that an audit of the center ordered last year by a Los Angeles City Council committee has been repeatedly put off, delaying formal approval of the new contract.

Councilman Joel Wachs, the committee’s chairman, had ordered the audit to determine if the rent reduction was justified.

Wachs said Thursday that the center had been slow in providing adequate financial data for the audit. He said he was not sure about the current status of the audit.

Under the amended contract, LAEC Inc. would be allowed to pay the city a flat rental fee of $350,000 over five years instead of 5.5% of gross receipts, as required under the present agreement.

Officials at the center have long maintained that without the rent break they will be forced to drastically reduce the center’s operations. But Wachs and fellow committee member Rita Walters said last year they were uncomfortable with the reduction, and that before granting more lenient terms they would have to see detailed information on the center’s finances since LAEC took over its operation in May, 1990.

David Josiah, one of the center’s trainers, said the trainers were told that if the center cut back operations, a lottery would be held to determine which horses would stay.

“It wasn’t said in a threatening way, just a very matter-of-fact way,” Josiah said. “He was just forewarning us that this could happen.”

The center has long been plagued by financial difficulties, even though it is regarded as one of the premier equestrian facilities in the nation. The center’s two previous operators--J. Albert Garcia and Gibraltar Savings--failed to make the center profitable.

Josiah and others praised LAEC’s operation, saying that they had vastly improved the center. “They’ve done great things for this place,” he said. “They have been trying hard to make it much better. It would be terrible if it ended.”