Haines Santa Anita President

George Haines, who was announced Thursday by MI Developments (MID) as interim Santa Anita President, made comments today about his new post, where he will oversee all of MID’s California racing operations, including Golden Gate Fields.

“It’s a great honor to be named to this position,” said Haines. “I’m not only honored, but I feel very fortunate to be inheriting an extremely talented management team that I know very well. I’ll be working closely with all of our people and I’ll be calling upon their expertise.

(Story continues below following one-minute Arcadia’s Best video profile of George Haines from May 2007.)

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Haines takes over from Ron Charles, who resigned Monday amidst many new changes at Santa Anita under new owner MID, which took over control to bring Santa Anita out of bankruptcy due to serious declines in betting and attendance throughout the horse racing industry and Santa Anita in the past couple of years. In recent weeks, MID has canceled major contracts with Rick Caruso’s Shops at Santa Anita proposed retail project and the longstanding Oak Tree Racing, and has taken on the California Horse Racing Board on issues such as replacing the Santa Anita racing surface again, and the number of racing days each week and the length of the horse racing season.

Haines has nearly 40 years of work experience at The Great Race Place, as he was first employed at Santa Anita in 1972, in the track’s Parimutuel Department.

“Although these are obviously very challenging economic times, we are going to be working toward a common goal of making the racing experience here at Santa Anita everything that our fans and horsemen over the years have come to expect—and that is world class.

“Santa Anita is still the number-one winter-racing venue in America and we’ve proven time and again operationally and from the standpoint of live national television, there is no better place in the world to showcase racing on a grand stage than right here at Santa Anita.

“When you look at the future of racing here in California, there is no question that change is needed and it is coming. I’m fully confident that Santa Anita will be an integral part of the solution and that we will continue to lead the way.”

The CHRB on Thursday granted Oak Tree its customary month in October to operate the non-profit meet again this fall, but unless Oak Tree and Santa Anita can work out a new deal, Oak Tree may be run at another track for the first time since the 1960s.

Caruso and MID are also in discussions on a new pact for the proposed Shops at Santa Anita, for which the Arcadia City Council recently submitted a letter to MID strongly encouraging them to follow through on plans for which the City is already being sued by the Westfield mall corporation.

– by Scott Hettrick