Oak Tree

Because of renewed safety fears involving the synthetic surface at Santa Anita Race Track, the upcoming Oak Tree meeting could be moved to Hollywood Park. Santa Anita has been the home for Oak Tree since 1969, and this year's meet is scheduled to open Sept. 29. But last Friday, in a meeting involving Southern California trainers and owners, fears were raised that a recent aeration procedure on the track had punctured the mesh, or membrane, that is designed to hold base material such as rocks well below the surface.

Zenyatta was shipped from her home at Hollywood Park to Del Mar in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and the likelihood remained that the unbeaten mare would take a shot at her third consecutive Clement Hirsch Stakes victory. That Grade I $300,000 race is Saturday. The only hesitation for the connections of the 17-0 Zenyatta, trainer John Shirreffs and owners Jerry and Ann Moss, is the synthetic surface at Del Mar. None of them like it, but then, they dislike synthetics in general, to varying degrees, at all of the Southern California tracks, even though it is where their star has made her fame and fortune.

Normally, Mace Siegel's focus would be only on Rail Trip. The 84-year-old from Beverly Hills, one of the godfathers of Southern California horse racing, owns the 5-year-old with a chance to become only the third-ever multiple winner of Saturday's prestigious Hollywood Gold Cup. The other two, who each won three times, were Native Diver and Lava Man. Being in that company is the chance of a lifetime. But Siegel's mind is all over the place, and with reason. It is a Friday morning at Izzy's Deli in Santa Monica.

Frank Stronach, chairman of MI Developments, which controls Santa Anita racetrack, agreed Tuesday to allow the Oak Tree Racing Assn. to hold its autumn meeting for the final time at the Arcadia track. Stronach made the offer during a meeting of the California Horse Racing Board, and the offer was accepted by Oak Tree officials. Stronach had said earlier, "We don't want a tenant in our house." But later he agreed to a one-year lease after horseman Mace Siegel got involved in the proceedings to find a compromise.

If the company that runs Santa Anita can't make a deal with the nonprofit Oak Tree Racing Assn. to run its annual fall meeting at the Arcadia track, then Hollywood Park and Del Mar are prepared to offer their facilities, executives at both tracks said Saturday. Jack Liebau, president of Hollywood Park, said his track has made an offer to open its facility "rent free" to Oak Tree. And Joe Harper, president of Del Mar, said, "Of course we would be open to running their meet at Del Mar."

Reporting from Baltimore -- The company that operates Santa Anita racetrack has voided a contract that runs through 2016 with nonprofit Oak Tree Racing Assn. That disrupts, at least temporarily, negotiations to make Oak Tree and Santa Anita a permanent or semipermanent home for the Breeders' Cup series. Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree, confirmed Friday night that his group's contract to run racing in its usual fall time slot at Santa Anita, which it had since 1969, was affirmed two weeks ago, then voided two days ago. Greg Avioli, chief executive of the Breeders' Cup, which has been meeting and discussing the likelihood of an increased role for Santa Anita, said, "We do not view this as a positive development.

'An Oak Tree' Where: Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays- Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 14 Price: $30 Contact: (310) 477-2055, www.odysseytheatre.com Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

If ever a show could be said to beggar description, it is "An Oak Tree," now in its Los Angeles premiere at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. A British import that received an Obie Special Citation during its off-Broadway run, the play was written by theater artist Tim Crouch, who co-directed it with a smit and Karl James. The premise of Crouch's two-person piece sounds deceptively simple: A stage hypnotist (Crouch) solicits a volunteer from the audience, initially unaware that the individual is the father of the 12-year-old girl he ran over and killed three months ago. Here's the wrinkle.

For first time in the 26-year history of the Breeders' Cup, it is being held in consecutive years at the same track, and that makes this week's world championships at Santa Anita a rare opportunity to implement lessons learned. No. 1 on the list is dropping admission prices by as much as 50% from last year and not requiring patrons to purchase tickets for both days of Breeders' Cup racing on Friday and Saturday. "We needed to offer accessible pricing," said Greg Avioli, Breeders' Cup president and chief executive.

Not to be lost in the scrum of a Saturday sports scene that will feature two baseball playoff games and the usual crowded schedule of college football is a huge racing day at Santa Anita. For this day, at least, the Great Race Place should live up to its name. Four of the races at the Oak Tree meeting will dole out a total of $1.1 million in purses and each of the four will qualify its winner for next month's Breeders' Cup, also at Santa Anita. And two of the current bigger names in the sport are scheduled to compete.