THAT Oak Tree, recently evicted at Santa Anita by its Frank Stronach-led landlord, MI Developments, will move its fall meet to Hollywood Park, and the Breeders' Cup will run its 2011 races there. 20-1
THAT Oak Tree will move its dates to Del Mar, and the Breeders' Cup, needing a wider turf course than Del Mar's, will announce that its 2011 races will be run at Belmont Park. 30-1
THAT Belmont Park will run out of money before the 2011 Breeders' Cup rolls around. 35-1
THAT Oak Tree will move its dates to Del Mar, and the Breeders' Cup, saying for the first time that it can live with a narrow grass course, will announce that its 2011 races look mighty fine where the turf meets the surf. 40-1
THAT the California Horse Racing Board will refuse Stronach and Santa Anita the fall dates that have traditionally belonged to Oak Tree. 50-1
THAT Stronach will tell the racing board that "my lawyers will see your lawyers." 75-1
THAT the racing board, reminded that Stronach tracks run more than half of the racing dates in California, will elect Stronach chairman. (Stronach changes the job title to "grand poobah.") 100-1
THAT Stonach will change his mind and say to Oak Tree, "Boy, have I got a new lease for you." 200-1
THAT Sherwood Chillingworth of Oak Tree will look at the new lease and say, "Say, Frank, what's this part where we give you $10 million so you can go back to dirt?" 250-1
THAT Oak Tree will go out of business without a fight. 300-1
THAT the Breeders' Cup will abandon its idea to hold its races at a "permanent site." 400-1
THAT the racing board will lock Stronach and Chillingworth in a padded room with no windows, and check every third day to see how things are going. 500-1
THAT the racing board, Stronach and Chillingworth will agree on an arbitrator: John Brunetti of Hialeah. 1,000-1
Don't wait to bet. These odds are expected to fluctuate wildly.
18 May 2010 at 02:47 am | #
Great M/L Bill. If you would go back and number them, I would like to bet the “BC at Hollywood/What is the $10 million for a new dirt track” exacta.
18 May 2010 at 04:51 am | #
Bill,
I’d like a piece of that $10-million for dirt action. Is this a fixed odds or parimutuel pool? Thanks.
JP
18 May 2010 at 05:02 am | #
One thing we can be sure of is that it will be a bloody train wreck. When it’s over whoever walks away thinking they won something will be sadly mistaken. There still won’t be enough horses to fill up a merry go round.
Not only that, as this goes on more and more people are losing confidence that California can ever come back and are moving away.
Here come the lawsuits.
California is in intensive care and New York is on life support.
Monmouth is going to benefit more than people imagine.
18 May 2010 at 07:08 am | #
Where can I bet?????
FRANK STRONACH now controls CA horseracing and whatever he says the CHRB puppets will support!!!
It’s all about FRANK now, so Jack, Fravel, Harper, et al better wake up and listen before the Stronach Express runs over them like it did to Chilly and Oak Tree!!!!
Jerry
18 May 2010 at 10:58 am | #
Jeryy Jam, I respect your opinions, usually, but I have to think that Stronach running the CHRB is as far from the truth as you can get.
Where do you think Ron Charles will resurface?
18 May 2010 at 11:10 am | #
Ace:
I didn’t mean running the CHRB literally, I meant that Frank would essentially control the majority vote of the CHRB as he will probably own the only operating (non fair owned/related) racetracks in the state once Hollywood Park closes. Who else would be around to challenge Frank or even care when they don’t have any racing dates or racetrack to compete with him??
Jerry
18 May 2010 at 04:43 pm | #
I would guess that answer would be Del Mar, whose goodwill is approximately the same as Stronach’s ill will.
18 May 2010 at 04:57 pm | #
Like it or not (not) Stronach is in complete control of what happens in California racing from here on out. He owns both Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. That gives him a lock on racing in Northern California (except for the county fair circuit) and enormous power in Southern California (especially when you consider that Hollywood Park will soon meet the wrecking ball.)
Welcome to the era of “whatever Frank wants, Frank gets.” The real question here is what exactly does he want?
19 May 2010 at 01:43 am | #
I think you “Stronach is call the shots” guys are in for a rude awakening, along with Frank.
23 May 2010 at 06:55 pm | #
Apropos of the above comments about Monmouth & F. Stronach:
Opening Day, yesterday, at Monmouth Park was a wonderful experience (even after getting clocked at the windows); the energy surge was amazing.
New Jersey racing setting an example for CA, NY, & KY on how to get it right: Imagine that.
Kudos to Gov. Christie & his staff for their essential support.
Our former governor – do you have any idea how hard it is to blow the unlimited advantages of political incumbency in New Jersey?! - was waiting for the Hudson River ferry, on the Manhattan side, about three months ago.
He looked like a survivor of a chem. lab explosion, which is basically what NJ racing looked like until Christie made it possible for the events of May 22, 2010 to produce headlines about horse racing that haven’t been seen since the 1950s.
The critical moment was years ago, & no one at the time, as is so often the case, knew it. Monmouth was reeling – the annual no-slots bribe from the casinos wasn’t a reality then – & the only Savior in sight was the lionized (without merit, yet incessantly) Frank Stronach.
(I was also there on the day in 2003 when he wandered into Suffolk Downs. An identically desperate racing management had identical designs on his wallet & it was amazing that they weren’t lined up outside the front door to carry the train of Toronto’s Louis XIV½ as he alit from his carriage.)
If he would only buy Monmouth Park, the Promised Land would be ours.
Well, he kicked the Park’s tires. Fortunately, they were as lifeless as his own future corporate finances would be in 2010.
So, instead, he signed the Deeds of The Kiss of Death with Pimlico, et al.
The day that we “lost” our Guardian Angel was truly the day – even though we did everything in our power to get hit by it – that we dodged the bullet.
Amen.
24 May 2010 at 07:23 pm | #
19 Nov 2010 at 03:21 am | #
I had the chance to work with Frank Stronach when he started his first business, Multimatic Investments Ltd., in Toronto. He was more like a cop. He was very punctual and he expected punctuality from all his employees. Armada skis He also expected the employees to put 100% in their jobs. Even at that time he hated the concept of trade union representation. He never tolerated any sort of criticism. Now CA horseracing is virtually under his control. Nobody will dare to speak against him. I think we should try to put an end to his tyranny.
24 Mar 2011 at 11:47 pm | #
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