NEWS
No St. Louis Derby at Fairmount Park in 2007
Posted: Friday, March 09, 2007 4:26 PM
by Pete Denk
When Lawyer Ron won the inaugural edition of the $250,000 St. Louis Derby last August, an estimated crowd of more than 10,000 fans witnessed the richest race in Fairmount Park history.
But there will be no encore in 2007, at least not at the Collinsville, Illinois, track.
Negotiations between Fairmount Park management and horse owners Jeff Cooper and Jean Kabbendjian, whose Circle C Stables put up 80% of last year’s purse, have broken down.
Cooper, an East Alton, Illinois-based lawyer, said Circle C was willing to put up $200,000 again this year.
“The track has told us they’re not interested in moving forward with the race. We’re just taken aback by it,” Cooper said on Thursday. “I just don’t get it. Our intention with this race was to bring recognition to Fairmount and help the people on the backstretch.
“We weren’t really asking for anything more than we asked for last year, which was control of the infield for the event and the ability to recoup some money by staging some events or concerts out there. We are completely blown away by Fairmount’s position.”
Fairmount President Brian Zander said Circle C’s desire to hold concerts on the infield was the main sticking point. The prospect of competing for horses with the $1-million Travers Stakes (G1) on August 25 and the $1-million Pennsylvania Derby on September 3 also dimmed management’s enthusiasm.
“We are very grateful to Jeff and all the guys at Circle C because they showed that if we hold a race of that proportion, with that kind of horse, the public will respond,” Zander said. “But the Circle C group wanted to have the concert deals in place in 2007, and we just don’t feel it was something we could do properly.”
Zander said there is a hesitancy to pull any money out of overnight purses for stakes races.
“About 1% of our entire purse distribution goes to stakes races,” Zander said. “We can’t take any money out of the overnight purses, which are something like $58,000 a day. That’s nothing even compared to Indiana Downs, Hoosier Park, or Prairie Meadows, and that’s just going against small tracks.”
Circle C owns naming and sponsorship rights to the St. Louis Derby, and Cooper said he is exploring holding the race at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, this year. Cooper said the six horses he has in training at Fairmount will be sent to another track within the next month.
“I feel bad for the folks on the backstretch and the folks around St. Louis who are interested in horse racing. I think it’s going to be really disappointing that they’re not going to do the race this year,” Cooper said. “The community really turned out for the event. It was fun to create it once, and we were more than ready to do it again.”
Pete Denk is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
