Oak Tree meeting will move to Del Mar

The prestigious Oak Tree thoroughbred race meeting will move to Del Mar as a permanent home, possibly starting in 2011.

Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s executive vice president, said Tuesday that he and other Oak Tree officials would meet Wednesday with Del Mar Chief Executive Joe Harper and his group to finalize those plans.

“We’ve met three times already,” Chillingworth said, “and Joe is all for this.”

Harper is hopeful that an Oak Tree meeting at Del Mar can happen by 2011.

“There’s some things we have to work out down here,” Harper said. “We want to do it. They want to come, but there’s some issues we have to be clear on.”

These include the availability of the Del Mar Fairgrounds and environmental issues.

“There’s always a possibility we can’t get it done for the 2011 meet,” Harper said.

Oak Tree, a nonprofit organization, had operated its meeting out of Santa Anita since 1969. Its annual fall meeting had reached such a status of excellence that it hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2008 and 2009.

Those two years produced enough success for the Breeders’ Cup board of directors to lean toward bringing its event to Oak Tree and Santa Anita on a semipermanent basis. That was close to a done deal when, in May, Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach threw a curveball into the proceedings by canceling Oak Tree’s lease for the current meeting, which will begin Sept. 29.

That sent Oak Tree scrambling for a new home.

Hollywood Park officials are eager to host this fall’s Oak Tree meeting, though a formal application still needs to be filed by Oak Tree officials with the state racing board. Approval is expected within a week.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over Santa Anita’s commitment to Oak Tree prompted the Breeders’ Cup board to commit to two straight years at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., which will hold the Breeders’ Cup event Nov. 5-6.

At one point, Stronach backed off and said Oak Tree could have one more meeting at his track, but then a group of horsemen and trainers protested that Santa Anita’s track was no longer safe and forced Oak Tree to plan its upcoming meeting for Hollywood Park.

Stronach announced recently that he would replace Santa Anita’s synthetic surface with dirt before the track’s major winter season opens Dec. 26.

Tuesday’s Del Mar announcement means that Hollywood Park, as expected, will be a one-year stop for Oak Tree.

The highlight of the Oak Tree meet this fall at Hollywood Park is the expected appearance of unbeaten super mare Zenyatta in a Grade I race Oct. 2. That will be her final tune-up before her final race, a defense of her Breeders’ Cup Classic title in Louisville.

Chillingworth said he had hired former Santa Anita executive Cliff Goodrich to handle a main area of concern to horsemen over the Oak Tree move to Del Mar.

“Cliff will work on housing and transportation, so that the horsemen can get back and forth to Del Mar with some ease,” Chillingworth said. “That was one of the big worries, and we are addressing that.”

An Oak Tree meeting at Del Mar would not be continuous with the Del Mar summer meeting, Harper said. There would still be a nearly monthlong break, and Tom Knust, racing secretary for Fairplex, said he did not expect the move to affect the Fairplex Park meeting held in September in Pomona.

But trainer Ron Ellis expressed concerns about the cost of staying in Del Mar for an additional month.

“It’s pretty expensive to go down there,” he said.

Del Mar has a fund to pay for horses being transported by van from Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, and Harper said he is also looking into obtaining discounts for living quarters and hotels during an Oak Tree meeting.

“I think all the stuff is manageable,” trainer John Shirreffs said.

Whether Oak Tree can generate the same impressive attendance figures to match Del Mar’s summer meeting is unclear. Harper said he expects a fall Oak Tree meeting at Del Mar to draw smaller crowds.

The average daily attendance at Del Mar through 30 days of its summer meeting is 18,605.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com