Our Top Twenty list reflects changes in the structure of racing as it retains strong ties to its past

Five years ago, we introduced our first Thoroughbred Times Top Twenty. It was an effort to identify for our readers the leaders of racing and to delineate their contributions.

It has been an interesting exercise-and hopefully good reading-over the years, and in this week's issue we introduce our sixth annual Top Twenty. Again, the purpose is the same: to identify the leaders of racing today. But each list, when viewed against another, offers something else: perspective. A look at the Top Twenty of five years ago helps illustrate how much racing has changed in that time.

For instance, in our inaugural list the National Thoroughbred Racing Association was as far away from reality as unity in racing. Today, the NTRA is a national organization with a $30-million annual budget.

Five years ago, the Television Games Network was not even a concept on a network drawing board. Today, it is a member of the Top Twenty because of its national influence-and even greater potential to change how people watch and bet on racing in the future.

The most significant change in our Top Twenty in the last five years, however, is in the overall makeup of the leaders. In 1995, there was not a single organization voted among the nation's industry leaders. In our 2000 list, seven of the 20 are an organization or company.

This change in the complexion of the leaders is acknowledgment of the changing face of racing. The recent consolidation of racetracks under fewer corporate umbrellas-such as Churchill Downs Inc. and Magna Entertainment Corp.-is the most conspicuous example of the transformation of racing.

Among the Top Twenty in 1995 were Richard Duchossois, Cliff Goodrich, and R. D. Hubbard. Duchossois dropped out of the Top Twenty after he shuttered his Arlington International Racecourse at the end of its 1997 racing season. Today, he is in talks with Churchill Downs Inc. to fold his track under the twin spires umbrella in return for a large equity stake in a company that now owns Calder Race Course, Ellis Park, and Hollywood Park among its holdings.

Hubbard, too, is gone from the Top Twenty. In 1995, Hubbard was chairman of Hollywood Park and an activist for expansion of his company into other gaming ventures. Today, Churchill owns Hollywood. After Hubbard had taken the former Hollywood Park Inc. and turned it into a gaming-only company, it in turn was bought out by another gaming company.

Goodrich in 1995 was chief executive officer of Santa Anita Park and president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA). When Santa Anita was bought out by Frank Stronach-led Magna Entertainment, Goodrich lost his job. As for the TRA, that once-powerful organization has taken a back seat to the NTRA. In fact, among the Top Twenty in 1995 was Brian McGrath. Remember him? He was the "commissioner" of the TRA, and de facto "commissioner" of all of racing. He never could get the quotation marks off of his title, though, and his office was closed after just 18 months on the job, halfway through his three-year contract. (And just three months after we included him in our Top Twenty.)

The concept of a national commissioner eventually took flight with a consensus of the industry, leading to the formation of the NTRA.

The 1995 Top Twenty also contains some members who are on the 2000 list: Robert Clay, Will Farish, Seth Hancock, and W. T. Young.

It is a reminder that for all the changes that take place over the years and decades, the sport has been and always will be a haven for individuals who want to compete in and excel at owning and breeding racehorses.