SANTA ANITA : Change in Tote Company Not the Favorite Choice of Many
The tote company whose debut last Saturday at Santa Anita contributed to an estimated loss of $3 million in business was not the lowest bidder for the contract that the track signed.
Cliff Goodrich, the president of Santa Anita, said that the bid from Autotote was “slightly higher” than the bid from AmTote, which had serviced bettors since the track opened in 1934.
“We went with Autotote not because of economics,” Goodrich said. “We liked the design of the equipment that Autotote showed us. It was a system that appears to have more flexibility.”
For obvious reasons, Dick Donovan disagrees. Donovan, director of customer service for AmTote in California, is bitter because his company lost the Santa Anita business after almost 60 years.
“Santa Anita is saying that Autotote’s system will save them a lot of labor expense,” Donovan said. “This is a fallacy. Cliff Goodrich had a vendetta against my company. He had his mind made up before the bids were even in. He gave Autotote preferential treatment.”
Goodrich said that he accepted an independent consultant’s recommendation that Santa Anita hire Autotote. The consultant was hired by Southern California Off Track Wagering Inc. (SCOTWINC), the partnership that coordinates satellite betting on races from Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Del Mar, Los Alamitos and Fairplex Park.
“SCOTWINC wanted to go with Autotote,” Goodrich said. “So it makes sense that Santa Anita have the same company. I’m disappointed that Dick would say those things. There are other people in his company that don’t feel the same way.”
Donovan said that SCOTWINC’s 11-member board of directors, which includes representatives from all five tracks, was going to do what Goodrich wanted. Goodrich said that the only vote he carried was Santa Anita’s.
“I thought that we might be able to change that because we had (R.D.) Hubbard (board chairman of Hollywood Park),” Donovan said. “But then he sided with Goodrich. I’d love to know why. Our bid on the off-track business was between $500,000 and $1 million lower than the competition. Autotote must have made Goodrich a sweetheart deal for Santa Anita to make up for that.”
Asked about his vote, which made the SCOTWINC decision unanimous, Hubbard said: “The majority had already decided on Autotote. It was not worth fighting for, because we weren’t going to win, anyway. And there was that consultant who had recommended Autotote.”
While Hollywood Park is using Autotote for its off-track betting on the races from Santa Anita, Hubbard said that a decision has not been made about which tote company his track will use when its season opens in April. AmTote has been the tote company at Hollywood.
“We’ll be watching to see how Autotote performs the rest of the season at Santa Anita,” Hubbard said.
Last Saturday, with less than 48 hours to make the conversion from the AmTote equipment, Autotote suffered numerous breakdowns, which prevented a crowd of 46,242 from making bets. Thousands of frustrated fans left early, with Goodrich fearing that many of them will never return.
“Looking back now, it did not make sense that a contract expire just before our busiest day,” Goodrich said. “Ideally, Autotote should have had more time. But that’s looking back.”
Since Saturday, with much smaller crowds, there has been no recurrence of massive delays at the mutuel windows. The first two days this week, Autotote dropped 3 1/2 points on the stock exchange.
“The equipment didn’t fail,” said Lorne Weil, board chairman of Autotote. “The communications came up with some faults. We tried to anticipate everything, but there were some problems that arose.”
Goodrich said that AmTote’s equipment never caused Santa Anita to lose a race.
“We didn’t lose this contract because we didn’t give Santa Anita good service,” Donovan said.
Goodrich said that under their contract, Autotote will indemnify Santa Anita for some of the business that was lost. Some of this money will be passed on to the State of California and to the horsemen, who otherwise would have suffered losses in purse money, which is based on a percentage of the money bet. Ed Friendly, the organizer of a new group, the Thoroughbred Owners of California, estimated that horsemen would regain about $120,000 in purses.
To mollify their many disgruntled fans, Santa Anita has offered free admission through Jan. 31 for those who can produce the first page of their programs from Saturday.
On opening day at Saratoga in 1989, there was a tote breakdown, forcing the Upstate New York track to run several races as betless exhibitions. The track announced that there would be free admission for everyone the next day, without requiring proof that a bettor had attended the opener.
Then Saratoga printed up lapel badges that read: “I Survived Opening Day at Saratoga in 1989.” They were distributed at the track throughout the rest of the season, and sent out to fans on the Saratoga mailing list. The badges were good for a free admission at the Saratoga opener in 1990.
Asked about Santa Anita’s apology for Saturday, Goodrich said: “We had to do something that we had control over.”
Those could be hollow words for horseplayers who stormed out of Santa Anita in mid-afternoon, tossing their programs to the pavement in the parking lots.
Horse Racing Notes
Twelve horses are entered for Friday’s $100,000 San Gabriel Handicap, but there will be some defections depending on whether the 1 1/8-mile race is run on grass as scheduled. For example, Marquetry, one of two probables from trainer Bobby Frankel’s barn, will run only if rain forces Santa Anita to reschedule the race on dirt. Frankel’s other entrant is Luthier Enchanteur. Reign Road, who was fourth at 37-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will start only if the stake is run on dirt. Here’s the field, in post-position order: Fax News, Latin American, Bold Russian, Star Of Cozzene, Luthier Enchanteur, Daros, June’s Reward, Leger Cat, Kotashaan, Bistro Garden, Marquetry and Reign Road. Star Of Cozzene and June’s Reward are paired in the betting, as are Luthier Enchanteur and Marquetry, who is the high weight at 119 pounds, one more than Star of Cozzene.
Another race on Friday’s card, the $60,000 Run for Roses at a mile, will mark the return of Exchange, but only if there is a fast track. Exchange hasn’t run since her eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Gulfstream Park two months ago. Exchange has three victories, a second and a third in her other five starts this year, including victories in the El Encino and La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita last winter.
Pirate’s Bounty, whose offspring have won more than 160 races this year, added to his total in the last two races at Santa Anita on Wednesday, when Echo of Yesterday won the feature and Pretty Speeches won the ninth. Pirate’s Bounty, who will turn 18 Friday, along with all other thoroughbreds, stands for Marty Wygod at River Edge Farm in Buellton for a fee of $8,000 for a live foal. Wygod and his wife, Pam, race Echo of Yesterday, who has put together a three-race winning streak over the last six weeks. The Wygods used to race Pretty Speeches, but last month she was claimed from them for $32,000 by trainer Mike Mitchell. . . . Stuka, second to River Special in the Hollywood Futurity, has recovered from a minor shin injury and returns to training today. . . . Walk of Fame’s four-race winning streak has come since the 3-year-old filly was claimed for $25,000 at Del Mar. Formerly owned by R.D. Hubbard and trained by Richard Mandella, the 3-year-old filly races for Jack and Anthony Monsour and trainer Darrell Vienna. The Monsours suggested that Vienna claim the horse, who won one of six starts for Hubbard.
