Fairplex Proposal Is Turned Down

The California Horse Racing Board voted Wednesday to reject the proposed move of the 17-day Los Angeles County Fair meet to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, meaning the 64th season of racing at Fairplex Park in Pomona will begin Sept. 13.

“This was just such a serious change to our racing calendar and it will definitely impact the Del Mar and Oak Tree meets,” board member Roger Licht said. “I just thought it needed additional study before we tampered by approving a move.”

Licht, Marie Moretti, John Harris and John Sperry voted to reject the move by a 4-1 count, with chairman Alan Landsburg voting against the rejection. Sheryl Granzella abstained. William Bianco was absent.

At the June 6 board meeting, when the proposal to move the fair meet was first discussed, Moretti abstained from a vote to reject the move. The 3-3-1 split preceded a motion to arrange Wednesday’s special meeting in Los Angeles.

Licht said he would “seriously consider” the move for next year. Moretti said she applauded the proposal for the fair meet to reinvent itself.

“This is a tough one; I’ve never received so many calls on an issue as I have on this one,” Moretti said during the meeting. “But I think we should vote to reject for this year.”

Afterward, Moretti explained, “This idea to move just came upon everyone too fast. It seemed like every day a new letter was coming in citing a new statute that needed to be addressed.”

Los Angeles County Fair Assn. President/Chief Executive James Henwood said his decision to strike a five-year lease arrangement with Santa Anita President Jack Liebau was precipitated by industry hints that the Fairplex dates were too valuable to be expensed on an old, tight-turned five-eighths-mile dirt track.

Liebau argued that moving the fair dates to Santa Anita would result in increased handle, higher purses due to the presence of a one-mile track and turf course and greater distribution to satellite wagerers.

Upon defeat, Henwood contended that the members of the industry who declared Fairplex Park such an important component of the Southern California circuit were now responsible for proving their stances were not self-serving.

Henwood wants year-round training at Fairplex reinstated--most of April and July are now deemed off months after a 50% reduction ($1.5 million) in funding--and he also requested increased involvement in the Barretts Equine Sales and industry support should he decide to install a one-mile track and turf course.

“The industry needs to be accountable about our challenges,” Henwood said.

Henwood is expected to resume talk of a move to Santa Anita at the board’s 2003 racing dates committee meeting July 26 at Del Mar.

Racing boards and executives from Hollywood Park, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and Oak Tree Racing Assn., which operates its meet at Santa Anita, opposed the move, along with the Thoroughbred Owners of California and the California Thoroughbred Trainers.

The overwhelming support to deny the move was evident at the meeting, as attorneys, track executives and such veteran horsemen as trainers Mel Stute and Jack Van Berg addressed the board.

“I haven’t got rich there, but Fairplex is a tradition, and if there’s one thing horse racing needs, it’s tradition,” Stute said.

Two-time Kentucky Derby-winning owner Bob Lewis argued, “We recognize tradition is magnificent, but we have to move forward within this industry, and a move like this would be advantageous.”

Craig Fravel, Del Mar’s executive vice president, and Sherwood Chillingworth, an Oak Tree vice president, whose respective meets immediately precede and follow the fair, questioned the details of the Henwood-Liebau lease. They also claimed approving the move would invoke a law that would ban satellite wagering at Fairplex during a fair season at Santa Anita.

A letter written by John Van de Kamp of the Thoroughbred Owners advocating a reallocation of fair racing dates to Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Santa Anita was also mentioned. Landsburg dismissed that plan, but it is expected to be part of the debate next month.