MI Development Ends Contract with Oak Tree

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MI Developments Ends Contract with Oak Tree
By Eric Mitchell

MI Developments has ended a lease that allows the Oak Tree Racing Association to operate at Santa Anita Park several weeks after the not-for-profit racing association thought its lease had been tentatively reaffirmed.

“We just got notified today, though we heard about the decision a couple of days ago,” Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s executive vice president, said May 14. “It was a surprise after we just had a reaffirmation of the lease.”

Chillingworth told the California Horse Racing Board at its April 15 meeting that the long-term lease at Santa Anita had been reaffirmed and was expected to run through 2016. Oak Tree, a not-for-profit association that has leased Santa Anita for fall racing since 1969, hosted the 2008 and 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. After those two successful events, Santa Anita is under consideration as permanent host site of the Breeders’ Cup.