This year it is necessary to take a wider view. 

In New York, we are still sitting on the fence as to what will happen with the franchise and how and where video lottery terminals will be added to the mix.  Last year, the California Board of Horse Racing passed a mandate requiring for its major tracks to convert to synthetic surfaces by the end of 2007. The cost for Santa Anita’s Cushion Track was $10 million dollars.

Santa Anita was forced to cancel three days of racing last week when their problem plagued Cushion Track failed to handle the heavy rains. Today, where and on what surface the remainder of the Santa Anita meet will be run, is uncertain.  The California racing board has consented for Santa Anita to move some dates to Hollywood Park, if necessary, and there is consideration of running some “all turf” cards. On Jan. 17, the Board will meet to consider allowing Santa Anita to reinstall a conventional dirt track for the remainder of the current meet. It will require 20,000 tons of dirt to do it. What responsibility does the Board hold for these expenses and lost dates?

This is a fine example of why oversight boards may not be the right answer to “fixing racing.”

Property owners, race track operators, jockeys, owners and trainers should be allowed to employ their own wisdom rather than to be forced to invest their livelihoods on some outsider’s “better idea.” How many times must racing be felled victim to the tail wagging the dog before we see the light?

It’s a confused state of affairs for racing on both coasts.  Fortunately, Gulfstream reconfigured the Racing/VLT ratio and is off to a good start for its 2008 meeting.  New York may want to note that one of the changes at Gulfstream was to reduce the number of VLTs. Frank Stronach’s Magna Entertainment Corp. is in need of improved numbers. Gulfstream and Santa Anita are among 10 racetracks owned by Magna, a corporation presently harboring $586 million in debts.

They have a newly appointed Chief Operating Officer in Ron Charles and it is his goal to raise $700 million from property sales in order to reduce debt. Hang on tightly Hollywood Park.

Meanwhile, Adena Farms is undergoing massive expansions and this Stronach-owned farm is in line to receive the Eclipse Award for the outstanding Thoroughbred breeder of 2007. It’s an interesting phenomenon of corporations that they can lose money while its founders and officers continue to benefit financially.  

Racing may be near another crossroads similar to what elicited Charles Strub to build Santa Anita in the first place. He opened his state of the art facility on Christmas Day in 1934, during the height of the Depression.  Santa Anita was then and remains a magnificent visual spectacle. 

He built a facility capable of handling 80,000 patrons and his expected numbers showed up.  For many ensuing years, California racing nearly solely supported the educational system and the wildlife conservation programs in that state.  Unfortunately this success set into motion a plethora of tracks all over the country.  The industry has never recovered from the excess of tracks and the government’s insatiable appetite for tax revenues derived from them.

Today, California tracks are facing strong competition for gambling dollars from a myraid of casinos on Native American reservations, Florida faces the same problem. New York will feel the impact of competition from emerging casinos in neighboring states as well as our own Native American casinos.  Casinos are taking down racing and caution should be heeded that they too will soon suffer from overpopulation and government greed.

The challenges confronting racing are many and the solutions to restore its health will not be found easily. Technology is changing the world rapidly and racing is having trouble keeping pace. 

The sport maintains its luster and financial success in a few locations which share one unique quality; abbreviated seasons.  Saratoga is one of these “gems.” It is going to take mammoth, unselfish effort of many well-intending, and visionary people in order for racing to continue at this level even in these select locations. A few profitable meets is not enough to sustain the entire industry. 

Compassion is the only way that racing will prevail over the blind forces of change and compassion cannot be elected, bought, appointed, or delegated.  It is necessary to ferret out people who come equipped with it and we had better get the search underway.