Racing Form Plans to Move to Phoenix : Horse racing: Relocation would cost more than 100 jobs in Los Angeles and will be fought by employees’ unions.

Citing deterioration of the neighborhood and a desire to seek a southwestern hub for their operations, executives of the Daily Racing Form announced plans Thursday to move their Los Angeles office to Phoenix, perhaps as soon as March.

The move will mean a loss of more than 100 jobs at the horse racing publication among typographers, plate makers, pressmen, data processors and front-office personnel in the editorial, advertising, accounting, circulation and statistical departments.

Unions representing about 150 Racing Form employees have vowed to challenge the move. Union representatives plan to meet with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor next week to enlist support.

“They’re not going to leave without a fight,” said Sabrina Hockaday, president of the Newspaper Guild, Local 69, which represents about 50 of the employees.

In recent years, ownership of the Form has passed from Walter Annenburg to Rupert Murdoch to the New York-based takeover specialists Kohlberg, Kravitz, Roberts, whose K-III subsidiary runs the publication.

There have been other company shake-ups recently, including the firing earlier this week of two top editors in the Form’s New Jersey office.

Racing Form offices are in the Koreatown area, on Bimini Place near Beverly Avenue and Vermont. At its summertime peak, the plant prints editions for 19 racetracks in six western states, Mexico and British Columbia.

“That’s like mid-city,” said Fred MacFarlane, press officer for Rebuild L.A. “That’s not like Watts.”

“The area here is a deteriorating neighborhood,” William J. Dow, Daily Racing Form chief operating officer, said. “We had to evacuate the building during the riots. We’ve had several muggings in the area. That was certainly taken into consideration.”