Santa Anita Could Be an Awesome Purchase

Not long after he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Awesome Again on Saturday, Frank Stronach, the owner of the colt, indicated he would be buying Santa Anita.

The racetrack in Arcadia has been on the market since October, when the Meditrust Co. indicated that it was bailing out after only a year. Meditrust, a real estate investment company located in Needham, Mass., bought Santa Anita in November of last year in a $383-million deal.

Stronach said Saturday at Churchill Downs that he had signed a letter of intent two weeks ago to buy Santa Anita.

“I’m dealing with a public company,” he said, “so nothing is official yet. But I’m confident that this will go through. Something should happen by mid-December.”

Santa Anita, which opened in 1934, was operated by the Strub family until the early 1990s. Santa Anita has been pursued in recent weeks by several groups, including Hollywood Park and, according to some reports, Churchill Downs.

There were rumors here last week that if Stronach bought Santa Anita, he would hire Churchill Downs management to run the track.

“I don’t know about that,” Stronach said Saturday. “I’m very fussy about the ideas that I have.”

In an interview last week, Tom Meeker, president of Churchill Downs, declined to comment about any involvement between his track and Santa Anita.

One price tag put on Santa Anita has been $150 million, but that amount would increase if it included the track’s other real estate holdings, including the Santa Anita Fashion Park, a shopping mall adjacent to the track. Stronach would not comment about a sale price Saturday and in recent weeks Meditrust executives have not returned phone inquiries about a possible sale.

Meditrust, whose holdings include hotels, golf courses and health-care facilities, bought Santa Anita because of the tax advantages the track’s Real Estate Investment Trust would bring. That benefit disappeared in July when federal legislation barred the Santa Anita-type REIT from taking tax exemptions on future acquisitions.

Stronach said he is meeting with William C. Baker, chairman and chief executive officer of Santa Anita, Friday at the track. Baker’s role in the pending purchase is not known and attempts to reach him Saturday were unsuccessful.

Stronach, 66, is an Austrian-born industrialist who owns Magna International Inc., which manufactures auto parts and develops electronic technology. Stronach was a hospital dishwasher at an Ontario, Canada, hospital before he went into the tool-and-die business. His company employs 18,000 people. Magna’s sales are more than $3 billion.

Stronach, who moved to Canada in 1954, operates breeding farms in Canada, Kentucky and Florida. He looked at farm property in California a year ago before deciding not to buy. Before Saturday, when Awesome Again added $2.7 million to his total, Stronach ranked fourth nationally among owners with $3.7 million in purses. Among the horses he has raced are 1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold and Canadian horse of the year Glorious Song. Stronach was voted Canada’s Sovereign Award and top owner and breeder in 1997. He owns about 900 horses, including 400 broodmares and 150 horses in training.

“Stronach buying Santa Anita would be good for California racing,” said a Southern California track official, who didn’t want his name used. “He’s a racing guy and is deeply involved in the sport. This is a lot better than another real estate company taking over the place.”

Stronach raced a division of horses with trainer David Hofmans in California last year, but he has no trainer on the West Coast now. There were reports Saturday at Churchill Downs that Patrick Byrne, the trainer of Awesome Again and Touch Gold and Stronach’s private trainer, might send a division to California after Stronach buys Santa Anita.

Stronach, who is known as a hands-on sportsman and businessman with strong opinions, left the board of directors of the Ontario Jockey Club a few years ago after other board members objected to his assessment of their operation. Stronach said the jockey club, which operates the Woodbine track in suburban Toronto, was being run “like a country club.”