The California Horse Racing Board approved an operating license for
the Santa Anita autumn meeting from Sept. 30 through Nov. 6 on the
condition that the track expand distribution of television pictures
through cable, satellite, or electronic sources before the scheduled
start of the meeting.
The board’s chairman, Keith Brackpool,
scolded Santa Anita officials for failing to find additional methods for
presenting the company-owned HRTV racing network through avenues such
as Time-Warner Cable in Los Angeles or the Direct-TV satellite system.
In addition, he was visibly aggravated when told that the HRTV network
would not be available through applications on iPads or iPhones.
Santa
Anita officials were ordered by Brackpool and other racing board
commissioners to begin discussions with the rival network TVG in an
effort to expand distribution through television this fall. TVG has a
greater reach through cable and satellites sources than HRTV.
Brackpool
repeatedly said that Santa Anita’s failure to expand distribution would
be a violation of a multifaceted waiver that the track’s former parent
company, MI Developments, received last year to operate two tracks in
the state – Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields – following the company’s
emergence from bankruptcy.
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