Oak Tree meeting hopes to move to Del Mar in 2011

The prestigious Oak Tree thoroughbred race meeting will likely move to Del Mar as a permanent home, starting in 2011.

Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s executive vice president, said Tuesday that he and other Oak Tree officials would meet Wednesday with Del Mar Chief Executive Joe Harper and his group to finalize those plans.

“We’ve met three times already,” Chillingworth said, “and Joe is all for this.”

Harper said, “It’s what we all want. There’s some issues we have to get through, from the use of the fairgrounds to environmental issues. We’re in ongoing meetings. There’s always a possibility we can’t get it done for the 2011 meet.”

Oak Tree, a nonprofit organization, had operated its meeting out of Santa Anita since 1969. Its annual fall meeting had reached such a status of excellence that it hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2008 and 2009.

Those two years produced enough success for the Breeders’ Cup board of directors to lean toward bringing its event to Oak Tree and Santa Anita on a semi-permanent basis. That was close to a done deal, when, in May, Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach threw a curve ball into the proceedings by canceling Oak Tree’s lease for the current meeting, which will begin Sept. 29.

That also sent Oak Tree scrambling for a new home.

Hollywood Park officials are eager to host this fall’s Oak Tree meeting, though a formal application still needs to be filed by Oak Tree with the state racing board. Approval is expected within a week.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over Santa Anita’s commitment to Oak Tree prompted the Breeders’ Cup board to commit to two straight years at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., which will hold the Breeders’ Cup event Nov. 5-6.

At one point, Stronach backed off and said Oak Tree could have one more meeting at his track, but then a group of horsemen and trainers protested that Santa Anita’s track was no longer safe and forced Oak Tree to move plans for its upcoming meeting to Hollywood Park.

Tuesday’s Del Mar announcement means that Hollywood Park, as expected, will be a one-year stop.

Stronach also announced recently that he would replace Santa Anita’s synthetic surface with dirt before the track’s major winter season opens Dec. 26.

The highlight of the Oak Tree meet this year at Hollywood Park is the expected appearance of unbeaten super-mare Zenyatta in an Oct. 2 Grade I race. That will be her final tuneup before her final race, an attempt to defend her Breeders’ Cup Classic title in Louisville.

Chillingworth said that he had hired former Santa Anita executive Cliff Goodrich to handle a main area of concern to horseman over the Oak Tree move to Del Mar.

“Cliff will work on housing and transportation, so that the horsemen can get back and forth to Del Mar with some ease,” Chillingworth said. “That was one of the big worries, and we are addressing that.”

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this report.