McGrath Is Expected to Get Racing Post

Brian McGrath, a sports executive with no background in racing, is expected to be named commissioner of the Thoroughbred Racing Assns. tracks later this month.

McGrath’s appointment comes several months after the TRA, a trade group of about 50 tracks in the United States and Canada, created the job, which reportedly will pay more than $500,000 a year.

Two industry sources confirmed that McGrath has been chosen for the job, but TRA President David Vance would neither confirm nor deny the McGrath appointment. He said that an announcement would be made on Jan. 17.

Since 1991, McGrath has been chief executive officer of International Sports and Leisure Marketing, which has offices in New York and Switzerland.

In September, the TRA board created the commissioner’s post and changed the president’s position to chairman of the board, effective in 1995. Traditionally, the TRA president has been an executive from one of the trade group’s tracks, working without pay in his TRA capacity. McGrath, whose office will be in New York, will answer to the board of directors. Among his objectives is the expansion of the TRA’s role in television, marketing and merchandising.

Vance, a vice president of the DeBartolo Corp., which owns three tracks, is in the middle of a two-year term as TRA president. “Our needs as an organization have changed,” he said. “The TRA has recognized the need to commit greater resources to a stronger, more centralized national effort to turn around the racing industry.”

Racing has hit upon hard times. It currently brings in only 5% of the national gambling dollar, compared to 28% in 1974. The sport is fragmented by a myriad of organizations that frequently disagree.