Santa Anita to hold Oak Tree meeting

Frank Stronach, chairman of MI Developments, which controls Santa Anita racetrack, agreed Tuesday to allow the Oak Tree Racing Assn. to hold its autumn meeting for the final time at the Arcadia track.

Stronach made the offer during a meeting of the California Horse Racing Board, and the offer was accepted by Oak Tree officials. Stronach had said earlier, “We don’t want a tenant in our house.”

But later he agreed to a one-year lease after horseman Mace Siegel got involved in the proceedings to find a compromise. It will allow the five-week Oak Tree meeting, held since 1969 at Santa Anita, to continue from Sept. 29 to Oct. 31.

Racing board Chairman Keith Brackpool called the offer “gracious,” even though Stronach made it clear Oak Tree would not be welcomed back in the future to Santa Anita.

“Let’s walk before we can run, but it was a positive step,” Brackpool said.

It came after a combative, sometimes heated dialogue lasting more than 60 minutes between Stronach and board commissioners.

Close to 150 people filled the Sunset Room in the Hollywood Park turf club for a session that was to be about future plans for racing at Santa Anita.

But Stronach offered few specifics other than stressing the need to meet with horsemen and others to develop a long-range plan. Among the ideas he suggested for improving the racing scene were deregulation, implementing “jackpot betting” and creating a “quadruple quadfecta,” apparently referring to picking the first four finishers in four consecutive races.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, watching from the audience, said, “I’ve never been to one of these meetings. It’s sort of entertaining and scary at the same time. What I learned is that the racing board is strong, and it’s good for California.”

Stronach also said Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride synthetic surface will remain through the track’s winter 2011 meeting while officials test another surface, possibly at a training track on property he owns in California or Florida.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com