Brainstorming for Ideas That Can Help Sport

Frank “Jimmy” Kilroe, a 40-year veteran in Santa Anita’s racing department when he retired in 1990, stylishly threw his own 84th birthday party recently, renting a private room in a fancy hotel.

Like the guests that came to Vincent Price’s mansion in that old grade-B film, “The House on Haunted Hill,” the friends and colleagues assembled all had to do something. Price’s guests had to survive the night to collect the money. Kilroe wouldn’t blow out the candles in Pasadena until everyone told him how to resuscitate racing.

“I’m telling you this,” Kilroe said from the wheelchair he has used since suffering a stroke seven years ago. “If something isn’t done in the next five years, there isn’t going to be anything left.”

Kilroe went around the big table searching for panaceas. One by one, racing executives, horse trainers, turf writers and friends of racing were dragged into the inquisition. The white-haired, soft-spoken Kilroe was adamant about finding out why the game no longer goes as it did.

Like Kilroe, trainer Gary Jones got out of racing for health reasons. That and a disenchantment with the game. And the satisfaction that his son, Marty, was ready to carry the family name into the third generation. Since his recent retirement, Jones has played a lot of golf near Del Mar. But on the days when his son is running a horse, he’ll either be at the track or watching via off-track satellite.

“It’s been tough for the last 10 years,” Jones told Kilroe. “The quality of racing isn’t close to what it used to be, and the dumbest thing we can do is to act like we don’t know that the bettors know. They know, all right, and they’re not going to bet most of the racing we’re offering them with any enthusiasm.”

Jones bemoaned the loss of the American Championship Racing Series, a well-received, short-lived promotion that got important races on major television networks and had horses crisscrossing the country as their trainers ran for bonus money.

“I love Cigar, and I’m glad we’ve got him,” Jones said. “But for all he’s done, he’s still not as well-known as he ought to be. I call him a cable horse. Most of his races have been on the cable channels. Racing’s got to figure out a way to get horses like him on the regular channels, because that’s where the new fans are.”

Kilroe gave the floor to trainer Richard Mandella, seated a couple of chairs away from Jones. In recent years, Mandella has collected wins in stakes races the way Jones’ barn used to.

“It hit me a couple of years ago, when I was back at the Kentucky Derby,” Mandella said. “I looked around and said to myself, ‘Man, this is big, real big.’ The number of the people that come to the race, the number of people that watch on television. It’s the same way when they run the Breeders’ Cup. These are the days when the whole country’s a horse fan, and those are the only two days.

“Racing’s just got to do more with those days. A national sweepstakes on those races would bring in so many curious people, and after they got in, they just might like it. I’m not talking about handicapping here, because that’s a turn-off for somebody who’s not into it. I’m talking about sheer numbers--picking a number and then turning on the television to see what that number does. Believe me, if somebody had numbers for those Breeders’ Cup races, they’d tune in that show, and they’d be there for the whole four hours. Now that would be exposure.”

At the other end of the table, opposite Kilroe, was Sherwood Chillingworth, a horse owner and executive vice president of the Oak Tree Racing Assn., which runs a fall meet at Santa Anita. Chillingworth is an optimist. He described William C. Baker, the new chairman of Santa Anita Realty, as a man who’s also dedicated to the racing side, someone who wants to curb the erosion of on-track business.

“I’m also encouraged by rare unity in a business that’s never been known for its unity,” Chillingworth said. “We went to Sacramento this year with just one thing in mind: reducing the tracks’ licensing fees. ‘Give us that, and we won’t be asking for anything else,’ was our approach, and for a change everybody in racing was behind this. If we get it, it will mean a saving of more than $50 million, and much of that money would go back into purses.”

Jones said that it would be just in time. “People are leaving, and we’re going to have to stop that,” he said.

The Mace Siegel family, long a fixture in California racing, recently announced it is sending many of its horses East, to start a Kentucky division. Mace Siegel pointed out that Kentucky purses are going up while California purses are being trimmed. “I don’t see anything good happening in California,” he said.

Kilroe’s racing roots were in New York--he began at the knee of John Blanks Campbell, the legendary racing secretary--and he knows that to flourish again, the sport needs to be nourished at both ends of the continent.

The night of Kilroe’s 84th, a few John Campbell stories were told, including the one about his turning off his hearing aid when trainers complained that their horses carried too much weight. More than ever, racing needs both ears open now. It doesn’t have Jimmy Kilroe dragging it into the next century.

Horse Racing Notes

Auriette, a 4-year-old filly who is undefeated in three races this year, will carry high weight of 121 pounds Sunday in the $250,000 Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park. Auriette, who will be ridden by Kent Desormeaux, won the Gamely Handicap in her last start. Flagbird and Didina, who ran second and third in the Gamely, are also entered for Sunday. Others running include Flagbird’s stablemate, Grafin, plus Real Connection, Fanjica, Different and Bail Out Becky, the Bill Mott-trained filly who won the Del Mar Oaks last year and had two recent wins at Churchill Downs. . . . Starry Ice, Spirited Jaclyn and Montecito, who ran 1-2-4 in the Cinderella Stakes on June 12, are among the starters for today’s Landaluce. Starry Ice is undefeated, winning her three starts by 15 1/2 lengths. Montecito comes from Wayne Lukas’ barn, which has won the stake five times, most recently with Serena’s Song in 1994.