Santa Anita Leaves NTRA

The survival of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. was being questioned Friday after 22 racetracks, among them Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park, the jewels in Frank Stronach’s empire, jointly announced that they were withdrawing from the reeling marketing group.

All seven of Stronach’s tracks now have dropped out of the NTRA, including Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields, the two in Northern California. Other defectors include 12 aligned tracks in the mid-Atlantic region. Most prominent of these are Pimlico, which hosts the Preakness, the middle race in the Triple Crown, along with Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

Other tracks that resigned are Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, Hawthorne in suburban Chicago and the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. The rest of the tracks in Stronach’s Magna Entertainment group are Remington Park in Oklahoma, Thistledown in Cleveland and Great Lakes Downs in Michigan. The other mid-Atlantic tracks are Atlantic City Race Course and Garden State Park in New Jersey, Delaware Park, Penn National, Philadelphia Park, Charlestown in West Virginia, Colonial Downs in Virginia and Laurel Park and Timonium in Maryland.

NTRA dues for 2001 were to have been paid by Nov. 10. The Stronach tracks alone account for more than $1 million in dues, and it is estimated that the overall loss to the NTRA through the defections will exceed $2 million.

A NTRA spokesman said that the organization still has 56 member tracks, plus 10 off-track betting organizations. Still firmly supporting the NTRA is the powerful Churchill Downs group, which besides the parent track in Louisville includes Hollywood Park, Arlington Park in suburban Chicago and Calder Race Course in South Florida.

There had been rumors for weeks that Stronach and the mid-Atlantic tracks were considering resignations. Stronach, highly critical of the NTRA, had considered pulling out his tracks a year ago.

“We take this action with a profound sense of regret and disappointment,” the 22 tracks said in a joint statement. “We enthusiastically joined the formation of the NTRA three years ago with optimism and excitement. We still believe strongly in the fundamental concept that formed the foundation of the creation of the NTRA--that is, that thoroughbred racing should reap great benefits from a centralized national office with a mandate to create a strong brand for our great sport and to grow the business of thoroughbred racing through a nationally coordinated marketing plan. Unfortunately, as the NTRA has sought to become financially sustaining, it has pursued policies and engaged in practices directly inimical to the business interests of many of its members, including [these 22 tracks].”

What pushed the defecting tracks over the edge was the recent deal that the Breeders’ Cup made with the Television Games Network, giving TVG exclusive rights to home betting on Breeders’ Cup races. The Breeders’ Cup and the NTRA are partners supporting TVG, a newly formed 24-hour racing network that has struggled because most states, including California, prohibit telephone and Internet betting. Stronach is said to be planning an interactive betting system of his own, and several of the mid-Atlantic tracks operate their own accounting-wagering services.

Stronach and other officials of his Magna Entertainment could not be reached for comment.

“We are disappointed in these withdrawals,” said Tim Smith, commissioner of the NTRA, in a prepared statement. “There are still many significant tracks still committed to the work of the NTRA. We hope [the tracks that dropped out] will reconsider, and we will try to work out a compromise to resolve their concerns.”

When the NTRA started in 1998, it was the latest in a series of attempts by racing to shore up a game that has been deserted by many of its fans. The Thoroughbred Racing Assns., an international trade group with a racetrack-security arm, has been in existence since the 1940s, with membership ranging from 40 to almost 60 tracks, but it lacked the money to fully market racing and provide the industry with a unified voice. In the mid-1990s, the TRA hired Brian McGrath, who came with the title of racing’s first commissioner, but McGrath spent much of his time selling tracks on the league-office concept and trying to raise money to keep his operation afloat. He left after a failed exercise that cost TRA members about $5 million.

Under Smith, the NTRA hired at least eight highly paid vice presidents, and for a time ran a New York office, with Smith living in Atlanta and another key executive commuting from Boston. The NTRA has spent more than $30 million on national advertising campaigns and on Friday, Smith repeated a claim that his office has increased racing’s exposure on television and enhanced fan interest. That TV coverage will be in jeopardy next year, however, because the Fox network, which carried a series of top stakes races around the country last year, has expanded commitments to major league baseball and the NASCAR stock car racing circuit that are expected to squeeze racing out of its programming.

Santa Anita’s defection from the NTRA jeopardizes the Oak Tree Racing Assn’s chances of hosting the Breeders’ Cup races in 2002. D.G. Van Clief, president of the Breeders’ Cup, said Wednesday that current policy prevents the Breeders’ Cup from running its fall races at a track that isn’t an NTRA member. This year’s Breeders’ Cup--eight races worth more than $13 million--will be run at Churchill Downs next Saturday, and next year’s event is scheduled for Belmont Park.

Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree, which leases Santa Anita from Stronach for its annual fall meet, said in an interview Thursday that it is ironic that Oak Tree, one of the founding sponsors of the NTRA, would be precluded from hosting a Breeders’ Cup because of a business decision by Stronach.

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CAL CUP HAS FAMILIAR LOOK

Bagshot is one of five defending champions entered today in Santa Anita’s 11th annual showcase for Cal breds. D15

BREEDERS’ CUP

NOV. 4 at

CHURCHILL DOWNS

Louisville, Ky.

10 a.m.

Channel 4