Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree Racing Association leader, dies at 93

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the Oak Tree Racing Association for 26 years, died Tuesday after a brief hospitalization, according to friends.

Chillingworth was 93.

Best known to friends and racing colleagues as Chilly, Chillingworth had an extensive background in real estate development and had been a racehorse owner since the early 1970s.

With partners, Chillingworth raced Swing Till Dawn, who won the 1983 Charles H. Strub Stakes; Yashgan, who won the 1985 Oak Tree Invitational; and Forzando, who won the 1985 Met Mile.

Chillingworth became a director of the not-for-profit Oak Tree Racing Association in 1989 and was named executive vice president in 1993. At the time, Oak Tree operated an autumn race meeting at Santa Anita. The meet included the Breeders’ Cup races four times when Chillingworth had a senior role.

During Chillingworth’s time there, Oak Tree hosted the California Cup races beginning in 1990. That series of statebred races was at the height of its popularity in the 1990s and 2000s.

“Chilly was one of the kindest and most gracious executives in racing,” George Haines, a former Santa Anita president, said in a statement released by the track.

Oak Tree’s association with Santa Anita ended in 2010 when the autumn meeting was held at Hollywood Park. In recent years, the organization conducted a race meeting at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif., although this year’s Pleasanton meeting was not held under the Oak Tree banner.

Oak Tree donated earnings from it race meetings to a variety of horse-related organizations and charities throughout California and the United States, and provided funding for the renovations of facilities on the Santa Anita backstretch. Oak Tree continues to provide funding for racing-related charities, according to board member Richard Mandella.

A native of Hawaii who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Chillingworth had an active role in other aspects of racing, including as a steward of The Jockey Club and a director of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Enterprises. He was vice chairman and chief executive officer of Santa Anita Realty from 1994-96.

Chillingworth is survived by his wife, Sandra, six children, and grandchildren.