Los Alamitos’ Move Might Create a Stable Situation

The California Horse Racing Board’s race-dates committee consists of Richard Shapiro, Marie Moretti and John Sperry. They might consider resigning while they have the chance. Their day jobs are bound to be easier.

This committee, diligent to a fault, spent months last year deciding whether Santa Anita should open on the traditional Dec. 26 or be allowed, as the track had requested, to wait until Dec. 29. It was something about the way the calendar fell, that a Dec. 26 opening would short-change the number of weekends the track would be open, and hurt Santa Anita’s business.

The dates committee heard out Santa Anita representatives, then heard them out again, and may have even heard them out a third time. The issue went on and on before the committee decided that Dec. 26 was still the right date for the opener.

But that was kid stuff for Shapiro’s committee, compared with what might be ahead. If the new brainchild of Ed Allred and Mike Pegram reaches fruition, making Los Alamitos Race Course thoroughbred-ready for 2007, there may be a dates battle like Southern California racing has never seen.

What will happen to the race dates for Hollywood Park, assuming it’s still in business?

Will Hollywood Park ask to run at Santa Anita -- as it did in 1949, because of fire damage?

Will the reconfigured Los Alamitos be allowed to run thoroughbred-quarter horse doubleheaders?

Will Los Alamitos be allowed to run thoroughbreds at all?

Will there be a knockdown, drag-out between Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos for thoroughbred rights?

In announcing their $40-million reconstruction at Los Alamitos, Allred and Pegram said they had been talking to Hollywood Park about their plan, but one thing they made clear was, if the thoroughbreds came to Cypress, Pegram would manage the meet, under Allred’s auspices. They wouldn’t turn over a meet to Hollywood Park, then sit back and watch Hollywood’s corporate parent, Churchill Downs Inc., run the show.

“We wouldn’t want to have too many cooks in the kitchen,” Pegram said.

It would be premature for Shapiro, a fair but hard-nosed commissioner, to be tipping his mitt, because the plans at Los Alamitos are barely blueprints, and Churchill Downs, despite many rumors, hasn’t sold the real estate at Hollywood Park yet. One thing Shapiro applauded, however, when Los Alamitos proposed its makeover on Thursday was that these were local people putting up the cash. Pegram’s primary residence is in Arizona, but he races most of his horses in California and has long owned a hillside condominium overlooking the Del Mar track.

“I consider local ownership a positive thing,” Shapiro said.

Churchill Downs, of course, is based in Louisville, Ky., and Santa Anita’s owner, Magna Entertainment Inc., operates out of suburban Toronto.

“Racing needs a more stable situation in California,” Pegram said. “The situation in Arcadia [Santa Anita] and at Hollywood Park hasn’t been good. We’d like to give the industry another option. If they respond, we think this will help the game. If they don’t, we’ll just pack up and go home.”

Unless looks are deceiving, Allred, 68, is not doing this for the money. The Los Alamitos land is worth more than $200 million alone, Allred said. Because Los Alamitos is a private company, profit and loss are Allred’s own business, but he is believed to be the most financially successful track operator this side of Del Mar.

Quarter-horse racing doesn’t have a national appeal, but because it’s a night product, it attracts simulcast bettors after the daylight cards are finished. Los Alamitos’ record nightly handle in 2004 showed an 11% gain over the previous year. About 950,000 fans attended daytime simulcasts in the fiscal year 2003-04, and they bet $275 million.

“It would cost $400 million to build a first-class thoroughbred racetrack,” Allred said. “No one these days could justify an investment like that. But we’re getting the same thing for about $40 million.”

Brad McKinzie, Allred’s long-time aide-de-camp, brought the Los Alamitos owner and Pegram together.

“I’d like to say it was kismet,” McKinzie joked. “But Doc [Allred] was saying he’d like to do something on the thoroughbred side, and Mike’s name automatically came to mind. It could be a tremendous opportunity.

“It puts Los Alamitos in a good position in case there’s no Hollywood Park. Why not open up the thoroughbreds to Orange County if you have the chance?”