Mike Pegram Unplugged by Ray Paulick

[andymays]

http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/paulick-report-forum-brought-to-you-by-breeders-cup-pegram-unplugged-part-1/

Excerpt:

What are some of the things about racing today that make you just shake your head?


Well, here we are in California. Hollywood Park announced a long time ago they will lock up. When that happens, you can give the dates to Santa Anita and Del Mar, but where are you going to put the horses? Nowhere. Who’s working on that? Try nobody. That’s one piece. Second piece: I’m tired of hearing Frank Stronach talking about the horsemen’s bill of rights. I want to hear about his 1998 plans where he was going to do all this grandiose crap. That frustrates me. I don’t like having my future messed up by someone else.

[Indulto]

Also from the article:... You and Los Alamitos owner Dr. Edward Allred made a proposal a few years ago to expand Los Alamitos and make it a viable replacement for Hollywood Park. Why did that fall on deaf ears with the California Horse Racing Board?
Two things happened there. No. 1, we had a great plan and yes we got ignored. No doubt. No. 2, Doc Allred was upfront with me. He said he did not want Hollywood Park to close until they were ready to go. That was his personal sentiments. He did not want to lobby to take away Hollywood Park’s dates. That’s where me and Doc Allred differed in our opinions. I wanted to lobby the CHRB to take away those dates. I didn’t have anything personal against Hollywood Park, but it would have been the right to do.

That happened right after Hurricane Katrina. No one likes going to a graveyard. Everyone knows Hollywood Park is dead. They’ve stopped reinvesting. Hollywood Park has the same owners as Bay Meadows and the same thing happened up there: it just sat there. Horse racing became a joke in Northern California. There was no reinvestment, and handle and attendance went down.

It ain’t the economy killing Hollywood Park, it’s Hollywood Park killing Hollywood Park. What have our leaders done? They’ve said, “That’s OK.” And it’s not OK. Unless something happens quickly, California is going to be dead. You’ve got a man (Dennis Mills, the CEO of MI Developments, which now owns Santa Anita) that comes in and cancels the lease with Oak Tree, for his own personal gain. Not because Oak Tree did anything wrong. And everybody says, “That’s OK.” It’s not OK.