Longacres `Family' Say Track Owners Betrayed Them

An epidemic of bitterness and a sense of betrayal cut a wide swath through the ranks of Longacres horsemen and employees yesterday.

Women cursed. Men cried. And vice versa.

``Of the people I talked to today, they all felt the same way - it's a big betrayal,'' said thoroughbred trainer Tom Burlingame.

The hard feelings were not provoked by sale of the venerable racetrack to The Boeing Co. - most felt that was sad but understandable. What was hard to forgive, the horsemen said, was the unexpected fact that no allowance was made for a transition period of racing in 1991.

``They don't have the compassion or thoughtfulness to worry about their employees,'' said trainer Patty Harrington.

Based on a 57-year shared history in the Longacres ``family,'' the horsemen said they believed they would be allowed at least a year to adjust to the demise of the Seattle sporting institution.

But no golden parachutes materialized for the several thousand

trainers, owners, breeders and jockeys when the Alhadeff family abruptly turned the controls over to Boeing and deplaned with a king's ransom in aerospace stock.

The purchase price for the track was not disclosed, but real-estate-industry officials estimate Boeing may have paid as much as $94 million.

``After 50 or 60 years of saying, `We're a family,' it's an awful way to treat your `family' members,'' said Stan Puhich, agent for two-time champion jockey Gary Boulanger. ``They've been deceitful to their own little `family.' ''

Ken Alhadeff, senior vice president of Longacres, said the track was ``no longer economically viable for us to operate.''

He cited increased property taxes, increased operating expenses, declining revenues, the introduction of the state lottery and government subsidies of competing sports franchises in Seattle. He also pointed out that Washington's 4 percent cut of the parimutuel handle was one of the highest rates of its kind in the nation.

``This is not easy, but the realities are that we cannot operate as we would have preferred,'' said Morrie Alhadeff, Longacres chairman and the father of Ken Alhadeff and Longacres President Mike Alhadeff.

``This is a very emotional time for me and my family,'' said Mike Alhadeff. ``I've been working here since I was 14; for me it's year Number 30. One thing I must say is that I'm very proud of the Longacres legacy and the great people who have been involved in Longacres, the incredible people that we have had, and their loyalty.''

Harrington, a trainer for 24 years after starting as an exercise rider in 1958, said she was disillusioned.

``That was a joke,'' she said. ``They were always saying, `We're so concerned about our people,' and then they walked away from us.''

The Alhadeffs announced yesterday, three days after the annual autumn Closing Day festivities, that there would never again be live racing at the track founded by the family's late patriarch, Joe Gottstein.

``Let me make it clear: Boeing gave us the opportunity to look at the option of a transition,'' Ken Alhadeff said. ``We studied it hard and long, and came to the conclusion it was economically and operationally not viable.''

He explained that the family believed it would be ``very, very difficult'' to conduct racing after an announcement that the track was being sold for other purposes.

Over at the headquarters of the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders, General Manager Ralph Vacca couldn't speak about the closure without crying.

``Personally, it totally devastated me because of all the good memories,'' said Vacca, who began walking horses at Longacres when he was 14, in 1951. ``. . .Longacres was Santa Anita, Aqueduct and Churchill Downs all wrapped up in one for this state.

``It's just as much a part of Seattle as Pike Place Market or the Smith Tower, or any of the landmarks and institutions that make an area what it is.''

Trainer Jose Corrales, who made the professional leap from veteran jockey to rookie trainer four months ago, found the situation ``depressing.''

``I'm disappointed with the owners,'' said Corrales, who won the 1989 Longacres Derby on the colt Harmony Creek. ``It's pretty shabby.''

Most of the horsemen, who respected Gottstein for his iron hand and revered him for his soft heart, said they could not believe his grandsons would take Longacres out of commission with so little warning.

It will be closed Dec. 31, after three months of televised racing from tracks in Spokane and Yakima, under a pre-existing contract. The Alhadeffs refused to disclose any details of the sale and declined several requests for interviews to address horsemen's concerns.

Many of the Longacres people vividly recalled the many acts of kindness by Gottstein, who built the track in 1933 and reigned over it until his death in 1971. One of his customs was to ask a horseman who was down on his luck for a lift - and then discreetly slip him a little cash.

Many said they perceived a striking contrast between those Longacres traditions and what they called the third generation's disregard for the decision's impact on the horsemen and employees.

``Joe was a humanitarian, a philanthropist,'' said Puhich. ``Morrie has compassion, I could always sense that. Whenever a jockey was hurt, he was always the first one there. When a horse was hurt, you could see the tears in his eyes. But these kids (Mike and Ken) - the crassness.''

Longacres trainer Mike Chambers, reached by phone at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, Calif., said, ``Those guys, they don't care about anybody but themselves.''

Harrington felt the sudden sale was a jarring departure from Longacres management's history of taking care of their own.

``I was pretty shocked and I was kind of indignant at the high-handed way those Alhadeff boys treated their employees and the industry,'' said Harrington, who was acquainted with Joe Gottstein for more than a decade.

`. . . He loved the sport. This just wouldn't have happened.''

Stan Puhich believes the precipitating event in the decision to sell Longacres was the death of Gottstein's widow, Luella, 11 months ago.

``She was the balance,'' Puhich said. ``She kept all of them in focus because she was the traditionalist, she believed as Joe did.''

Harrington said Gottstein's grandsons fooled the horsemen by steadfastly denying for months that the track was being sold while delaying capital improvements this year.

The condition of the dirt-track surface was a major source of controversy because the trainers contended it was dangerously ill-maintained. The jockeys claimed it was so unsafe they staged a wildcat strike one muddy day this month, causing the cancellation of eight races.

``I think (the Alhadeffs) had a lot of headaches with the horsemen,'' said track announcer Gary Henson, an 18-year Longacres veteran. ``That and the financial situation took the heart out of them.''

The Alhadeffs spent $25,000 digging up the track for two days in August before the Longacres Derby, but postponed another $125,000 of renovations - supposedly until the upcoming off-season.

``The thing that got me was how they purposely led everyone astray by saying, `Oh, we'll spend money on it next year. We'll be only too happy to do it then,'' said Harrington, one of the few locals to train at Santa Anita racetrack in Southern California in the winter.

``They didn't let anybody prepare for it and then they called the meeting once everyone was dispersed and laid it on them when there wasn't anybody around to complain so vigorously.''

When the rumors of the sale were looming as large and unavoidable as the Grim Reaper this month, a wealthy thoroughbred owner and Seattle sportsman, Mark Dedomenico, put together a group of horsemen who offered to buy Longacres. Their letter was never answered by the Alhadeffs, who said yesterday that they had approached Boeing and offered the track to the aerospace giant.

Henson said the image of an elaborate corporate headquarters on the spot where the history of Washington horse racing was written made him ``nauseous.''

Harrington said it was a ``cheap shot'' for the Alhadeffs to say they voluntarily chose to reject Boeing's offer to keep the track running long enough to afford the horsemen an orderly transition.

``So they were tired of taking care of it and it wasn't making enough money, that's fine,'' she said. ``They could have handled it the right way and still worked in an option to have racing two or three more years.''

Said Burlingame, ``They didn't handle it very well and we got stabbed in the back.''

But the Alhadeffs insisted the decision had been hard on them, too.

``It goes without question that this has been the toughest thing that I've ever been through,'' said Ken Alhadeff. ``It is a time that has a lot of emotion in it. We are committed to the future of this industry. We've done what we feel is in the best interests of ourselves and the industry.''

Puhich said the younger Alhadeffs had surrendered to their ``yuppie values.''

``I feel sorry for them, if they're going to take the money and run,'' Puhich said. ``As the Bible says, `What is a man who owns all the world but has no soul?' ''

But the Alhadeffs said they felt they might galvanize the industry to action by selling the track, which disbursed about $10 million a year in purse monies.

``We feel very strongly that the end of Longacres will be the launching pad of the future,'' said Ken Alhadeff. His brother Mike vowed that their family would always stay involved in some capacity with the thoroughbred business.

Puhich read the situation differently.

``Morrie loves the business,'' he said. ``And I'm not saying those boys (Mike and Ken) don't love it, but they certainly don't express it the way Joe and Morrie expressed it.''