Horse group asks for track investigation

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Oklahoma City racetrack's claims of financial difficulties are meeting doubt from a horseman's group opposed to Remington Park's plans to drop quarter horse racing.

Sunday, September 15th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Oklahoma City racetrack's claims of financial difficulties are meeting doubt from a horseman's group opposed to Remington Park's plans to drop quarter horse racing.

Terry Tippens, an attorney representing the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association, said the proposal has already caused the sale prices of the state's race horses to drop.

``Too much is at stake to impose such a big injury upon a $2 billion industry,'' Tippens said in a letter to the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission. ``While Remington Park complains about losing money, it refuses to even discuss a sale of the track to people who believe they can run it at a profit.''

Remington Park officials have said they want to cut 11 of the season's 75 racing days next year and eliminate its 34-day race meet for quarter horses, Appaloosas and Paints.

The state racing commission granted preliminary approval to the plan in August and is scheduled to look at the issue again Sept. 26.

Remington Park says financial problems make the changes necessary and has said it lost almost $4.8 million last year.

Tippens, in his letter, said Remington Park has not released enough detailed information for anyone else to verify the loss. Tippens said there are also inconsistencies in what the track has made public. For example, Tippens said there is a $6.5 million difference between what Remington claimed to pay out for purses and other awards in its statement of operations and what it paid out in its official report to state authorities.

Tippens said the racing commission should examine transactions of Magna Entertainment Corp., which operates Remington Park and several race tracks in other states.

``The commission must do its job and require explanation, justification and accountability and then carefully scrutinize the financial information to understand whether Magna is fabricating an economic loss,'' he wrote.

Remington general manager Frank Deal said late Friday that he had not seen the letter and wanted to read it before commenting.