Powell Appears Latest to Be Caught in Revolving Door

Frank Stronach’s confusing revolving door of racing executives shouldn’t unhinge the Oak Tree Racing Assn. when it launches season No. 32 at Santa Anita today.

For the second consecutive year, Lonny Powell, who has been president of Santa Anita, was listed as general manager for the Oak Tree meet, a fall season run by a not-for-profit group that leases the Arcadia track. And for the second consecutive year, Powell will not be aboard, this time his entire future with Stronach unclear.

A year ago, Powell took on additional duties as vice president of racing for Stronach’s acquisitive Magna Entertainment, which was in headlong pursuit to buy other tracks. This summer, little more than a year after Powell had arrived at Santa Anita from Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Stronach sidestepped questions about his future while announcing that Jack Liebau, a veteran racing executive from Bay Meadows, would take over at Stronach’s three California tracks. Stronach owns Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields as well as the license to conduct racing at Bay Meadows.

“We’ll be all right,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president at Santa Anita. “We’re ready to go. Brant Latta will be our general manager, as he was last year. We like Brant. He does a good job.”

The irony to this is that Latta, whose year-round job is general manager of Santa Anita, followed Powell, along with several other front-office people, from Turf Paradise to Santa Anita in 1999.

Powell did not return phone calls, and reportedly has vacated his office at Santa Anita. Stronach, said to be traveling and not expected at Santa Anita today, has also not responded to telephone messages.

Many racing executives, including those within the company, are either not privy to Stronach’s plans, or not willing to discuss them on the record. One official, not wanting to be quoted by name, said: “Frank has Jack Liebau on the payroll at Bay Meadows, and he’s the logical guy for these expanded duties. He’s a horse owner, he’s got a legal background and he’s been running a track. He’s got all the tools you need to fill the role that Frank has in mind.”

Powell, 39 when Stronach made him the chief executive at Santa Anita in June 1999, is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. Starting with an assistant general manager’s post at the old Longacres track near Seattle in 1982, Powell built an extensive background running several tracks, though none of them was as big as Santa Anita. What first impressed Stronach about Powell, who sat down with Stronach only once before he was hired, was the way he had moved up through the ranks.

Stronach executives have come and gone, as though flung into a maelstrom, since the international auto-parts magnate launched his racetrack-buying binge with the purchase of Santa Anita for $126 million in December 1998. Sometimes Stronach’s new hires must be unlisted before there is even time to list them. One such example was Rick Cowan, a respected former Canadian track official and tote-company executive who was a short-termer at Santa Anita in the winter of 1999.

“Cowan . . . will be Frank Stronach’s eyes and ears at Santa Anita,” said a company newsletter. Not long afterward, Cowan was gone. It reportedly was an acrimonious parting.

Jerry Campbell, who had been chief executive of Magna Entertainment, left the company in July after a six-month stint. Campbell said that he didn’t have the right background for Stronach, whose priorities had shifted to the proposed creation of a racing network that would include interactive betting.

The Breeders’ Cup, cautious because Stronach had undertaken a wide-sweeping remodeling of Santa Anita, and nervous about the wholesale changes in the executive suite, pulled the plug on Oak Tree and moved this year’s annual multimillion-dollar day of races to Churchill Downs. This Nov. 4, Churchill steps in to run eight Breeders’ Cup races worth $14 million in purses; Oak Tree’s card will be without a race worth $100,000 that day.

The opening weekend’s schedule includes Saturday’s $500,000 Yellow Ribbon, for filly and mare grass specialists; and the $200,000 Norfolk Stakes, which could lead to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for the more impressive 2-year-old colts. On Sunday, the features are the $500,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship--formerly the Oak Tree Turf Championship--and the $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes, a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

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Oak Tree Facts

* What: The Oak Tree Racing Assn.’s 32nd annual thoroughbred racing season.

* Where: Santa Anita Park, Arcadia.

* When: 27 days, today through Nov. 6.

* First post: 1 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 12:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, Oct. 9 and Nov. 6; noon Oct. 28; 9:30 a.m. Nov. 4.

* Top races: Saturday, $500,000 Yellow Ribbon, $200,000 Norfolk; Sunday, $500,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship, $200,000 Oak Leaf; Oct. 14, $200,000 Ancient Title Breeders’ Cup Handicap, $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders’ Cup Mile; Oct. 15, $500,000 Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap; Oct. 21, $250,000 Oak Tree Derby; Oct. 29, $150,000 Carleton F. Burke Handicap; Nov. 5, $250,000 Las Palmas Handicap.

* California Cup Day: Oct. 28, 10 stakes restricted to state-breds, featuring the $250,000 Wells Fargo Bank California Cup Classic.