CONTROVERSIAL GILL CREATING QUITE A STIR.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing 

INGLEWOOD - With vanloads of horses, a wide-open checkbook and a chip on his shoulder, leading U.S. thoroughbred owner Michael Gill has begun a California invasion that could reshape competition here for better or worse.

Since weeks before a 7-year-old named Glick carried Gill's blue-and-white silks to an inauspicious last-place finish in Thursday's seventh race at Hollywood Park - as Gill's first non-Breeders' Cup starter in the state - the New Hampshire man has been a hot topic at local racetracks.

``He holds a lot in his hands,'' said Jack Carava, one of the top claiming-level trainers who figure to be affected by the arrival of the Gill stable.

Gill's complicated reputation precedes him as he debuts here with a 28-horse barn, including 24 purchased out of claiming races during the recent Oak Tree season at Santa Anita, all in the care of trainer Nick Canani.

On the plus side, the mortgage banker from Windham, N.H., is piling up Barry Bonds numbers. He won 945 races from 2000 to 2003, won 379 races and earned $8.1 million in purses this year alone to lead the nation by wide margins in both categories, and maintains a stable of about 275 runners with his voracious appetites for claimers and auction horses.

On the downside, he has left a trail of controversy up and down the East Coast. His tactics and dominance led racetracks in five states to take the rare step of barring him from their barns, two of his veterinarians' actions in Florida last winter got them thrown out of Gulfstream Park, and he has not been shy about fighting back with lawsuits.

Gill blames the problems on elitism, professional jealousy and his competitive nature.

``What makes me a bad guy is that I claim horses and I don't make deals,'' Gill said Thursday on the phone from Salem, N.H. ``I have a problem with the politics of the industry.''

The two sides of the question were weighed by Hollywood Park executives and their bosses at Churchill Downs Inc. after Canani applied for stalls to house Gill's horses during the meet that began Tuesday.

In light of California tracks' shortage of thoroughbreds, Hollywood Park operators decided in late October they had no compelling reason to look a gift-horse owner in the mouth.

``This is the first time in years that somebody said, 'I'm coming to California and I'm bringing horses with me,' '' said Martin Panza, Hollywood Park's racing secretary, whose first two cards this season averaged less than eight entrants a race. ''My job is to fill races, and if he can help me do that, more power to him. If he brings 30 or 40 horses from the East Coast, that's what we need. At this stage, we need all the help we can get.

``If the rest of the owners, who watch their horses train and train and never run, get jealous, maybe it'll cause some of them to re-examine their operations.''

Gill's first runner, Glick, was shipped in from New Jersey. His three entrants tonight and Saturday were claimed from other owners at Oak Tree for prices from $10,000 to $16,000. He added to his roster of claims Thursday, taking seventh-race winner Ecstatic for $80,000.

He says he hopes to build his local stable to 75 horses during the Santa Anita meet that opens Dec. 26.

Whether Gill's arrival is good or bad for California racing depends on whether we can believe his answer when he is asked whether the horses he claims here will remain here.

``We will send more horses to California than leave California,'' said Gill, who bases his racing operations at his own Pennsylvania training center.

Said Carava: ``He can either create a horse shortage or he can (alleviate it).''

A less reasonable fear is that Gill will run roughshod over the claiming ranks here and frustrate horseplayers with prohibitive favorites, as he did last winter at Gulfstream Park, where his trainer Mark Shuman saddled a track-record 87 winners, more than the next three men in the standings combined. Because fewer horses ship into and out of California than the chock-a-block eastern states, trainers here know the material too well. If Canani drops horses into too-cheap races to grab purses, he'll be certain to have them claimed away.

Gill's plan to try this lucrative circuit came together after he grew comfortable with Canani while the son of accomplished California trainer Julio Canani was working for Gill in Maryland. It gained momentum when the Oct. 25 Breeders' Cup brought Gill to Santa Anita to watch Forest Music run in the Juvenile Fillies. Even though the 2-year-old finished last.

He has yet to visit Hollywood Park and followed Thursday's race on television, seeing Glick and jockey Mike Smith fade from second to seventh in a field of seven.

Gill, a father of five, portrays himself as ``a regular guy'' hoping that one day his racing forays will pay for themselves.

``I'm not a sheik from Saudi Arabia. I don't own a diamond mine,'' Gill said. ``If we can show that you can make money claiming horses, a lot more people will invest in the business. There are a lot more Michael Gills than Arab sheiks. Racing can't be promoted only to the super-wealthy.''

Will California be good for Gill? Will Gill be good for California? They're the questions of the season.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

OUT OF THE GATE

- Kevin Modesti