NTRA Dealt Blow by Stronach

Frank Stronach, the owner of Santa Anita and five other tracks, said Saturday that his tracks would quit paying dues next year to the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., dealing a severe blow to the struggling marketing organization that set up shop in April 1998.

Stronach’s announcement, which came on the heels of his purchase of Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif., amounts to a lack of confidence in the industry-supported NTRA that sustained significant budget cuts earlier this year.

Besides Santa Anita and Golden Gate, Stronach also owns--or will soon own--Thistledown in Cleveland, Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Gulfstream Park, which was the host for the Breeders’ Cup Saturday.

“We’re going to opt out,” said Stronach, who inherited a two-year Santa Anita commitment to the NTRA when he bought the track in December 1998. “The NTRA has been veering in too many directions. I’d need a clearer mandate before I’d reconsider supporting them. There’s no use doing any marketing unless you have a product to market, and right now our product isn’t good enough.”

Stronach went on to criticize the leadership of the NTRA, which by a recent count had eight vice presidents. “I don’t like to see these buddy-buddy appointments,” he said. “The people that run the NTRA don’t have the investment in racing like I do. I don’t like their attitude of saying, ‘We know what’s good for you.’ Before I go along with them, they’re going to have to have a proper election of officers.”

Santa Anita reportedly pays more than $400,000 a year in dues to the NTRA. Counting Stronach’s other four tracks, his racing empire accounts for more than $1 million of the NTRA treasury. Many tracks participating in the NTRA are paid up through April, but the group has set a Dec. 31 deadline for tracks to renew memberships. Several tracks along the Eastern seaboard are reported to be on the verge of joining Stronach’s tracks in defecting.

Stronach has paid more than $300 million for the five tracks he owns. Santa Anita cost $126 million, Gulfstream $90 million and Golden Gate $87 million. Stronach, who bought Thistledown and Remington in a package from the DeBartolo family, said that he can’t say what he paid because of a confidentiality agreement, but it’s believed to be between $25 million and $40 million.

He’s not finished buying. Among the other tracks that might be on his shopping list is Pimlico, which runs the Preakness, the middle leg of the Triple Crown.

“I’d like to buy a few more,” he said. “I’d love to increase my portfolio. Pimlico would fit in nicely. It’s a Triple Crown facility and that would be nice to have.”

Stronach, 67, is the Austrian-born founder and chairman of Toronto-based Magna International, a world-wide supplier of automotive systems and parts. He’s been racing horses since 1967 and has become a major breeder. His Awesome Again won the Breeders’ Cup Classic last year at Churchill Downs and he was a partner in Touch Gold, winner of the 1997 Belmont Stakes. At Gulfstream Saturday, his Golden Missile ran third in the Classic.

“At first it was a hobby,” Stronach said. “As it’s gotten larger, it’s become a business of love. Over the years, I’ve foaled horses, I’ve shoed them and I’ve walked hots, so I believe I know the aspects of the game. The trouble with racing is it’s too clubbish. Tracks don’t realize that what they’re selling is entertainment. I hope what I’m doing works. I hope that in a few years, people will say that Frank Stronach made a contribution to racing in the United States.”

Notes

Trainer Wayne Lukas’ win with Cash Run was his fourth in the Juvenile Fillies and his first since Flanders in 1994. Flanders raced for William T. Young, the owner of Cat Thief. . . . Cash Run races for Satish Sanan, who paid $1.2 million for the daughter of Seeking The Gold and Shared Interest as a yearling last year. . . . Lukas said that Cat Thief will resurface in the Strub series at Santa Anita early next year. . . . Lukas’ Lady From Dixie was scratched from the Distaff because of a torn tendon. . . . Trainer Ted H. West was thrilled with Budroyale’s second-place finish in the Classic. “This is great,” he said. “It’s another example of how hard he tries. It looked like he was falling back in the middle of turn, but he fought back. He seems to be doing so good now. I don’t know if he needs any time off.” . . . Jockey Jorge Chavez, who won two races, was puzzled by Behrens’ seventh-place finish in the Classic. “I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I don’t have any excuses. I don’t know whether he liked the track or not. He broke clean, but that was it. He just never picked up his feet.”