Remington officials turn over 21 documents to commission

Wednesday, September 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Remington Park officials have provided 21 pages of documents to the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission, which is considering the track's request to eliminate its quarter horse meet.

The commission subpoenaed the information from the track as it considers Remington Park's proposal to trim thoroughbred racing days from 76 to 65 next year and get rid of its 34-day race meet for quarter horses, Appaloosas and Paints.

The commission in August granted preliminary approval to the track's request and is scheduled to consider granting final approval at a meeting Thursday morning in Oklahoma City.

Remington Park officials say the track lost more than $4.7 million this past year and eliminating the quarter horse meet will allow them to cut some losses.

But the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association says getting rid of the mixed-breed meet would destroy Oklahoma's $2 billion horse industry. Association members are questioning whether Remington Park's losses are real.

The quarter horse group asked the commission to subpoena detailed backup records from Remington Park so it could evaluate the truthfulness of claimed losses. An official was critical of the documents, saying the park didn't provide all that was requested.

``This doesn't answer any of the questions about the documentation they used to come up with their data,'' Debbie Schauf, executive director of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association, said Tuesday.

``Anybody could print this stuff out.''

Schauf pointed to a ``disclaimer'' at the bottom of a 2001 monthly operating statement provided by the park that states it was ``prepared with unaudited financial information.''

Remington Park defended its response, describing it as a ``good-faith attempt to respond to the subpoena.''

The track didn't want to turn over some records because doing so would ``cause an undue burden on Remington Park, Inc. by requiring the production of voluminous documents and personal confidential information in the form of invoices, canceled checks, specific wage information, etc.''

Among other things, the information revealed that Remington Park handled nearly $134 million in wagers last year, but only $14.6 million came from on-track wagering on live races. Simulcast racing is a far greater source of track revenues.