Threatening Note to Stevens Leads to Arrests

Two brothers have been arrested by Inglewood police in connection with a threatening note that Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens received Sunday at Hollywood Park.

Mark Frankel, 25, and his brother Adam, 28, were arrested Thursday night at their homes by Det. Jeff Steinhoff. Mark Frankel lives in Sherman Oaks and Adam lives in Encino.

The Frankels, who are being held on $35,000 bail, are expected to be charged with conspiracy and extortion in an alleged scheme to extract money from Stevens, a three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey who won his eighth Breeders’ Cup race in November with War Chant in the $1-million Mile at Churchill Downs.

Steinhoff said that minutes after Sunday’s seventh race--which Stevens won with the 3-year-old gelding Minnesota Shuffle--the jockey returned to his locker to find an anonymous note. Steinhoff would not give many of the details of the note, but earlier this week another Inglewood policeman said that the contents were “threatening.”

According to Steinhoff, Stevens was asked in the note to go to a phone booth near Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia, and wait for a call. On Monday, Stevens went to the booth and received a call that was monitored by Inglewood and Arcadia police.

A package was left at the same booth on Tuesday, with a note asking those picking it up to return for another dropoff Wednesday. Stevens talked on the phone with the suspects three times Tuesday. When the second pickup was made Wednesday, the suspects were followed by police.

Steinhoff would not say how much money, if any, was left in the two packages, and he wouldn’t comment about how much the suspects sought in the scheme. Steinhoff said the investigation is continuing, but declined to say whether there are other suspects.

Stevens, 37, has had a roller-coaster year. Severe pain in his knees forced his retirement on Dec. 26, 1999, but after working as an assistant trainer he resumed riding in October at Santa Anita. A month after his Breeders’ Cup win, his good friend, jockey Chris Antley, was found dead, an apparent homicide, at Antley’s home in Pasadena. From the beginning of their investigation, Inglewood police could find no link between Antley’s death and the note Stevens received Sunday.

“I’m glad this is over,” Stevens said Friday. “Had this happened five months ago, I probably would have just taken that note and thrown it into the garbage. But happening like it did, so soon after Chris died, it shook me up quite a bit and I figured I better not ignore it. The Inglewood police are to be congratulated. They did a lot of fine work in getting to the bottom of this.”

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Frank Stronach’s stocking must not have been full yet.

Adding to his racetrack acquisitions, Stronach and his Magna Entertainment octopus have purchased the Meadows, a harness track near Pittsburgh, from the Ladbroke Racing Corp., the international, London-based gaming corporation. More important, the $53-million deal includes the Call-A-Bet account-wagering system, four off-track betting shops in Pennsylvania and an undisclosed interest in The Racing Network (TRN), a closed-loop subscription satellite service that offers round-the-clock coverage of racing.

In some states, bettors can wager by phone with Call-A-Bet and watch the races on TRN. Stronach appears to be positioning himself to make a competitive run at Television Games Network (TVG), another new horse racing channel that is offered on a few cable systems around the country.

Stronach has been at odds with the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., which is closely allied with TVG, and in October he joined 15 other tracks by withdrawing his seven tracks from the NTRA.

The Meadows joins a Stronach group that already includes Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows in California, Gulfstream Park in Florida, Thistledown in Ohio, Remington Park in Oklahoma and Great Lakes Downs in Michigan. There are reports that Stronach is eyeing the purchase of at least two other tracks, Portland Meadows in Oregon and Fairmount Park in southern Illinois. Stronach is well over the $400-million mark with his track and racing-related purchases.

The Meadows, which opened in 1963, is a track that draws small crowds but subsists because of an extensive intertrack betting network. Cheap horses make up most of the live racing cards at the Meadows, but since 1995 the track has been host to the Messenger Stakes, the final leg in the Triple Crown series for 3-year-old pacers. A fixture at the Meadows since 1967 is the Adios Stakes, one of the richest races for 3-year-old pacing colts.

In announcing the latest purchase, Magna said that Stronach tracks accounted for 26% of the thoroughbred betting in the U.S. in 1999.

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Texas Glitter, running for trainer Henry Moreno for the first time after being shipped to California by Todd Pletcher to run in the Hollywood Turf Express Handicap last month, set a stakes record Friday in winning the Dayjur Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Second in the Turf Express, beaten by a head by El Cielo, Texas Glitter ran 5 1/2 furlongs on grass in 1:01 1/5. In winning last year in 1:01 4/5, Accomplice had set the record for the Dayjur, which was first run in 1994.

Full Moon Madness also broke the record Friday, but he was a head short of Texas Glitter at the wire. Echo Eddie finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Full Moon Madness.

Texas Glitter has won four of his last five starts, all with Aaron Gryder riding.

Notes

Cliquot, winless in eight starts since winning the stake last year, is the 120-pound high weight in a field of eight for the On Trust Handicap on Sunday, closing day for the Hollywood meet. . . . Dixie Union, who hasn’t run since finishing fourth in the Travers at Saratoga in August, is a probable on Tuesday, opening day at Santa Anita, in the Malibu Stakes. . . . Instead of being bred, Happyanunoit will race as a 6-year-old in 2001. The New Zealand-bred mare won only one race--the Beverly Hills Handicap--this year, but she earned $463,390 on the strength of three seconds, two thirds and one fourth in seven starts.