“California Horse Racing Board set to decide on fall race meet” plus 1 more |
| California Horse Racing Board set to decide on fall race meet Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:53 PM PST Email ARCADIA, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board is expected to decide Thursday who will operate a six-week autumn meeting in Southern California this year, and a new plan discussed behind the scenes in recent weeks could lead to a change from the structure of the last 40 years. The dates have been traditionally operated by the Oak Tree Racing Association – from 1969 to 2009 at Santa Anita and at Hollywood Park last year. Oak Tree has a contract to conduct its meeting at Hollywood Park this year, but Santa Anita officials are seeking to conduct a meeting under its own management. Last fall, when racing dates are traditionally awarded each year, the racing board did not assign dates for a six-week period from Sept. 28 to Nov. 6. According to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity, a plan has been discussed that would involve Santa Anita hosting the meeting and making a cash contribution to Oak Tree, which has a not-for-profit structure, to continue its charitable work. Oak Tree officials told the racing board last fall that its organization has donated $27 million to racing-related charities in the last 40 years and that the absence of such an organization would create a philanthropic void in the sport. Oak Tree executive vice president Sherwood Chillingworth declined to discuss the racing dates issue Monday. "I feel it's more important to discuss it in front of the board," he said. Hollywood Park president Jack Liebau said Tuesday that he hoped that Oak Tree would receive the dates to run at Hollywood Park but did not elaborate on any ongoing discussions. "I understand there are a lot of things going on but I know not what they are," he said. Last fall, Liebau said that Oak Tree deserved the fall 2011 dates "for what they've done in California." Oak Tree operated a fall meeting at Santa Anita from 1969 until 2009, but the association's lease with Santa Anita's parent company, MI Developments, was voided last May after Santa Anita's previous parent company, Magna Entertainment, declared bankruptcy. Last summer, Oak Tree and MI Developments agreed to have Oak Tree run at Santa Anita in 2010 until horsemen's groups united in opposition in August, citing concerns over the condition of Santa Anita's synthetic main track. As a result, a rapid sequence of events led Oak Tree to move its meeting to Hollywood Park last fall. Santa Anita has since replaced its synthetic track with a sand-and-clay surface. The 2010 Oak Tree at Hollywood Park meeting averaged $7,198,000 in all-sources handle, according to a statement released at the conclusion of the meeting. The 2009 Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting had an average handle of $10.5 million, a figure greatly enhanced because the association hosted the Breeders' Cup that year. At a racing board meeting last September, Oak Tree officials argued that it should conduct its 2011 meeting at Hollywood Park for the second consecutive year. Santa Anita officials, citing expected higher attendance and handle figures, stated they should operate the dates to maximize revenue for the sport. The racing board tabled the issue. Santa Anita, led by chairman Frank Stronach, has sought the opportunity to increase racing dates in recent years, a position the track maintains. "I would hope that Santa Anita would be successful," track president George Haines said Sunday. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Government ruling will see horse racing receive £80m Levy settlement Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:49 AM PST If overseas racing remains exempt the Levy is likely to remain at 10 per cent. Hunt is not expected to make any immediate decision on the other key issue troubling racing, the status of overseas operators taking bets from the UK on British racing, but it is thought he will promise to address the issue this year, along with the status of betting exchanges. Racing has been dismayed as leading UK bookmakers, including Ladbrokes and William Hill, have taken their telephone and online operations offshore, thus exempting these parts of the business from Levy payments. It is understood Hunt will also open a consultation on the future relationship between racing and betting based on a commercial arrangement rather than the anachronistic Levy system introduced 50 years ago. Racing is pressing for the government to introduce a "betting right" that the sport could market in the same way it and other sports market their broadcast rights. Were the government to agree to legislate for this major change in the betting landscape it would open the way for all sports to sell their betting rights and transform the nature of the gambling industry. The government has already indicated that it will not legislate for racing alone, but favours a "level playing field" for all sports on this issue. Hunt has been forced to intervene after racing and the bookmaking industry failed to reach an agreement during a long and acrimonious debate on the new Levy settlement. Racing claimed that the bookmakers' proposal would have seen the sport receive as little as £50m, a dramatic decrease in funding that the sport claimed would threaten the livelihoods of trainers. The Levy has been in decline for several years with £75.9m received in 2009-10 and racing predicting a yield of £65m for the 2010-11 period that concludes at the end of March. Champion jockey AP McCoy is among leading figures in the sport who believe that prize money has now fallen to unacceptably low levels as a result fo falling Levy yields. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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