Woodbine Laboring Down to the Wire

A couple of months ago, Ted Bassett, president of the Breeders’ Cup for eight years, mentioned to his board of directors that he was thinking about retiring.

“Oh, no you don’t,” a colleague reportedly said. “You’re not getting out until we get past Toronto.”

Woodbine, the historic track not far from the Toronto airport, is the site of the 13th running of the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, the first time that the seven-race day has left the United States, but only after the Ontario Jockey Club and Bassett’s board dodged a bullet or two. Woodbine executives may still need to hunker down this weekend, because simmering labor problems have not gone away and the weather will have to change quickly to ensure fair racing and a good crowd.

Woodbine deserves better. This is the track where Northern Dancer and Secretariat ran their final races; where the Queen’s Plate, North America’s oldest continuously run stake, is held, and where big-time $1-million races like the Canadian International and the Woodbine Million have become fixtures.

The original Woodbine opened in 1874, in a remote location that has since become part of sprawling downtown Toronto. Woodbine moved to the suburbs when the current plant was opened in 1956.

In 1994, a $16-million improvement program was completed as Woodbine introduced a new 1 1/2-mile turf course that was named after E.P. Taylor, the man who raised and raced Northern Dancer, the first Canadian-bred winner of the Kentucky Derby. The grass layout is the only turf course in North America that circles the main track, and its 1,440-foot stretch is the longest in North America.

Woodbine has played host to British royalty time and again, having wheeled out its landaus for the Queen Mother and her family, and knows how to throw a good international party. But the years and months leading up to this Breeders’ Cup have not been kind to the Ontario Jockey Club.

The group announced a profit of about $200,000 for 1995, but that was its first black-ink year since 1990, and the company’s debt is $35 million. A cigarette company and a brewer have dropped their sponsorships of Woodbine’s two $1-million races. Then last February, in a bitter dispute, 700 parimutuel clerks were locked out by the jockey club.

In early June, Bassett announced that the Breeders’ Cup was pulling the plug on the races at Woodbine, and for a day or two there were rumors that Churchill Downs would step in and take them. But Premier Mike Harris, concerned that the Breeders’ Cup’s $35-million economic impact might vanish, stepped in, and on June 8 the clerks’ union announced a labor agreement.

This week, however, there are labor problems beyond Woodbine’s control. In an action that reminds residents of the in-fighting that scotched Toronto’s bid for the 1996 Olympics, organized labor has promised a weeklong campaign climaxed by a shutdown of the metropolitan transit system on Friday and a mass march on Queen’s Park on Saturday, the same day as the Breeders’ Cup.

David Willmot, president of the Ontario Jockey Club, is trying to defuse the situation.

“This is a long-standing ideological dispute,” he said. “We have had five years of socialist government followed by the last year and a half of conservative government. We have been promised that there will be no picketing at the airport and that there will be no difficulties on Breeders’ Cup day. Any action taken will be isolated. It will be downtown, 15 miles away. There may be delays, but we don’t anticipate anything major.”

Early Monday, before daylight reached downtown Toronto, about 20 pickets blocked the exit at a large parking garage across the street from a major hotel. A reporter, en route to Woodbine for morning workouts, waited about five minutes in his car before the pickets cleared the exit. By mid- afternoon, cars were backed up into the garage, waiting for the pickets to step aside.

This, then, may be the worst locale for the Breeders’ Cup’s Operation Bootstrap. Last year at Belmont Park, the attendance was 37,246, the lowest ever, and national television ratings were the third-lowest of the 12 years. Betting of $64 million was the lowest since 1990.

All 20,000 reserved seats at Woodbine were sold posthaste, and track officials have talked about surpassing the 40,000 mark Saturday, but meager crowds for the prestige events here this year are not positive omens. The turnout for the Queen’s Plate was only 16,000, the lowest in 40 years, and attendance was less than 8,000 for both the Woodbine Million and the Canadian International.

And if the rain doesn’t stop soon, many of the horses on racing’s $11-million day might be running with barnacles.

“The track was a sea of slop [Monday],” said Steve Bacalles, an assistant to Jimmy Picou, who trains Turf candidate Diplomatic Jet.

October is a typically rainy month and this year the temperatures have been below the averages, which are supposed to range between 40 and 56 degrees.

On Sunday morning, while Lit De Justice, her hope in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint, grazed next to the barn, California trainer Jenine Sahadi noted that it was starting to rain again.

“They’re talking about it clearing up by Saturday,” Sahadi said. “But I’ve been here for more than a week, and it’s rained every day. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Horse Racing Notes

Four pre-entered horses won’t run Saturday. Brave Act, recently bought in England by Sid and Jenny Craig, is out of the Juvenile because of a bruised foot. Zagreb, the Allen Paulson-owned winner of the Irish Derby, has a cold and will miss the Turf, as will My Emma, who will be rested for a 1997 campaign. Instead of the Mile, Zarannda ran Sunday at Longchamp and finished fourth.

Corey Nakatani has the mount on Helmsman in the Mile. Chris McCarron, who had been riding Helmsman, has the assignment on Smooth Runner, with whom he finished second in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar. Nakatani, who is the trainer’s son-in-law, will also ride Jewel Princess in the Distaff and Windsharp in the Turf for Wally Dollase.

Shane Sellers replaces Jose Santos on Mahogany Hall for the Classic, and Craig Perret has been hired to ride Chaposa Springs, who is headed for the Mile instead of the Sprint. . . . Leo O’Brien said that the filly Yanks Music is “about 90%” certain of running in the Classic instead of the Distaff.