New Boss in New York Could Stop Stronach

The simmering feud between Frank Stronach and Tim Smith might be back on the front burner.

Smith, commissioner of thoroughbred racing’s league office, the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., resigned that post Tuesday and appears to be close to taking the top job running New York’s three major tracks, which Stronach covets.

With Smith, the New York Racing Assn., which operates Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct, might be better positioned to fight off a takeover attempt by Stronach in 2007, when the NYRA franchise is up for renewal.

Smith and Stronach, the chairman of Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park and several other tracks, have been at odds before.

In 1999, not long after Smith had taken over as head of the fledgling NTRA, Stronach opposed the direction the trade group was taking in trying to unify the industry, and the following year Santa Anita and the other Magna tracks quit paying dues. Since then, the Magna tracks have come back into the fold.

While Smith, 56, is credited with increasing racing’s exposure on television and boosting the public’s awareness of the sport, the NTRA was forced into a merger with the Breeders’ Cup in 2002 in order to stay financially afloat. The Breeders’ Cup has deposited -- or will deposit -- $5.5 million into the NTRA’s coffers.

Asked once how the new relationship was working out, Smith said: “It’s great. I just wake up every morning, then ask D.G. [Van Clief] what I’ll be doing for the day.”

In reality, Smith and D.G. Van Clief Jr., president of the Breeders’ Cup, an annual one-day smorgasbord of million-dollar races, made a good team. That team will be broken up on Sept. 1, when Smith’s resignation takes effect. In a conference call Tuesday, Smith didn’t say that he would be taking the New York job, but that rumor has gone unabated for several weeks.

Smith would be stepping into a field filled with landmines in New York. The three tracks there lost more than $19 million last year, about $1.5 million of that a fine that NYRA paid the federal government after several mutuel clerks were found guilty of fraud in a tax-evasion scandal. NYRA still owes the government $1.5 million and is operating under a court-appointed monitor.

Terry Meyocks, former president of NYRA, left under fire and was hired by the NTRA as Smith’s special assistant.

When Smith leaves the NTRA in another month, Van Clief will become acting commissioner and CEO. Greg Avioli, the deputy commissioner, will be promoted to president and COO. According to the NTRA’s most recent annual report, Smith, Van Clief, Avioli and one other company officer were paid more than $4 million in 2002-03.