Racing Times never got the chance to share its final day with its readers
Ross PeddicordTHE BALTIMORE SUN
When The Racing Times shut down more than a week ago, the end came almost as dramatically, and nearly as quickly, as the mysterious death of its founder, Robert Maxwell.
The late media baron was found, floating face up Nov. 5 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands. He had either fallen, jumped or, some suspect, been pushed off his yacht.
It was a James Bondian sort of demise, with a Dick Francis twist.
Three months later, almost to the day, Maxwell's 10-month-old U.S racing paper ceased publication. It was considered a miracle that the paper held on as long as it did, because it was losing money. Maxwell's empire had begun unraveling almost as soon as he was buried on the Mount of Olives.
Still, The Racing Times editor Steve Crist did not expect the abrupt end that came about 10 days ago.
A New York media broker had been hired to dispose of the paper rTC after Maxwell's death and his financial pilferings had become public (for starters, Maxwell allegedly had robbed the pension funds of some of his companies by a couple of billion dollars).
Crist had talked to about a dozen groups, some, he said, with serious money, who wanted to buy the paper.
The Times had sort of been racing's answer to The National, and Crist a kind of horse player's Frank Deford.
On the phone last week from his home on Long Island, the 35-year-old former racing writer for The New York Times recounted the final moments.
It was Friday afternoon, more than a week ago.
Crist was sitting in his office in downtown Manhattan. About 4 p.m., he got a phone call from George White, the New York administrator of what is left of Maxwell's crumbling domain.
"George said that Charlie Wilson, who ran the [Maxwell] Mirror Group Newspapers in London, was in town. That's when I got an inkling that the end was near," Crist recalls.
He began writing "A Farewell To Readers."
In about an hour, Wilson was at the door with a battalion of uniformed security guards.
"It looked like a military operation," Crist said. "I told Charlie that we were working on the next day's paper, and could we at least put out tonight's edition?
"He said, 'Mr. Crist, you don't seem to understand. At the moment, you are trespassing.' "
Instead of printing the "Farewell to Readers," Crist read it to his staff. Then they were told to pack their personal effects and leave.
The Mirror Group had shut down the paper and sold certain assets, namely the operation's state-of-the-art mechanical equipment, to The Daily Racing Form, the industry's monopolistic daily The Racing Times had tried to topple.
Even if Maxwell had not died, Crist is not certain The Racing Times would have survived the financial collapse of its publisher's empire.
"But working for him was one of life's great experiences," Crist said. "All of a sudden, here came this rich guy out of the sky and said, 'Invent the paper of your dreams.' "
Crist, like a lot of other people, learned of Maxwell's death from his radio.
He had met with Maxwell for the final time last summer.
"He was pleased with the product, but not the circulation," Crist said. "He wanted to know why the paper wasn't selling. The Racing Form had already approached him twice and wanted to buy it. We figured our paper was costing them about $5 million in sales. But each time Maxwell told them to get lost."
Crist said that although the paper was an artistic success, it ran into distribution problems, and "it was taking longer for Racing Form readers to switch over than we had expected."
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