Oak Tree Meet Faces a Millennium Move

The Oak Tree Racing Assn., which conducts a fall meet at Santa Anita, will probably run its dates at either Hollywood Park or Del Mar in 2000 because of an ongoing renovation program at Santa Anita.

After the completion of the main meet at Santa Anita in April 2000, the east stands, which include the turf club, are going to be torn down and the demolition and the remodeling aren’t expected to be finished in time for the Oak Tree season that begins in late September or early October.

Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the Oak Tree group, declined to comment about a possible switch to Hollywood Park or Del Mar, but it is known from other sources that Oak Tree has had conversations with officials from both tracks.

A typical Oak Tree meet has 27 racing days. Hollywood Park traditionally runs an early and a late meet, and those dates do not conflict with Oak Tree’s.

The remodeling of the east stands and the turf club are included in Frank Stronach’s plans to make sweeping changes at Santa Anita. Stronach and his automobile-parts company, Magna International, bought Santa Anita in December for $126 million. Oak Tree, a not-for-profit association, has leased Santa Anita for annual meets since its inception in 1969.

The last time a thoroughbred meet in Southern California was moved to another track was in 1949, when fire damage forced Hollywood Park to run its season at Santa Anita.

Oak Tree had been considered the choice for next year’s Breeders’ Cup, but the Santa Anita group couldn’t guarantee that Stronach’s planned changes would be finished.

The Breeders’ Cup is expected to announce soon that the races for next year will be run Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs. This year’s Breeders’ Cup will be run at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6.

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The last jump of a 1 1/2-mile race was the difference Sunday as Single Empire won the $250,000 San Luis Rey by a nose at Santa Anita, thwarting Kessem Power in his bid to win the stake for the second straight year.

Single Empire, an Irish-bred 5-year-old who hadn’t run since his U.S. debut--a second-place finisher to Perim in the Carleton F. Burke Handicap at Santa Anita in October--was ridden by Kent Desormeaux for trainer Neil Drysdale and English owners Robert Sangster and Gary Tanaka.

Single Empire paid $11.20 to win, reaching the wire in 2:27 4/5 over a course listed as firm. The San Luis Rey was his fourth win in 10 starts and his first since winning the Italian Derby almost 22 months ago. Kessem Power finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Alvo Certo, with Lazy Lode, the 2-1 favorite, running fourth.

Kieren Fallon, who didn’t have a mount in the San Luis Rey, won two races earlier on the card, leading a European team of jockeys past United States riders in a four-race competition. Based on points given for high finishes, the Europeans had a 49-35 advantage. Olivier Peslier also won a race for the Europeans and Desormeaux gave the U.S. team its only win.

Horse Racing Notes

In the one-mile Gotham for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct, 11-1 shot Badge won by 7 1/2 lengths over Apremont, the undefeated Santa Anita shipper who faltered after setting fractions of 22 1/5, 44 3/5 and 1:09 2/5. The winning time was 1:34 3/5. . . . In Florida, Pineaff beat 2-5 favorite Menifee by one length in the Tampa Bay Derby. Doneraile Court was third. Pineaff, who was last--11 1/2 lengths back--after a half-mile, paid $14 after running 1 1/16 miles in 1:45 1/5. The loss was Menifee’s first in four starts. . . . In Dubai, Worldly Manner--the Del Mar Futurity winner who raced for owners John and Betty Mabee and trainer Bob Baffert before he was sold for a reported $5 million to Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Stable--won a trial race by about a length against nine rivals, with stablemate Aljabr second. The Dubai horses will run another prep in April before a decision will be made on shipping any of them to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.