Track Executive, Horse Owner McFadden Dies

Oregon racetrack executive and owner Arthur Lane McFadden, 86, died March 23 at his home in Portland, Ore., according to his family.

The son of successful Thoroughbred trainers and owners Art and Mary (McFadden) Goldblatt, McFadden had a multi-faceted career in the racing industry. He was manager of Portland Meadows in the 1970s and also was race announcer at Salem, Grants Pass, Tillamook, and Portland Meadows. He served as acting manager at Les Bois Park in Boise, Idaho, which his family said he named.

McFadden was later president of MEC Oregon Racing, which was owned by the former Magna Entertainment Corp. that operated Portland Meadows and Multnomah Greyhound Park from July 2001 through December 2004. He brought to the role extensive experience with Oregon racing and state politics as a lobbyist for the Oregon Thoroughbred Breeders Association. McFadden was instrumental in helping build up revenue at Portland Meadows and rectified environmental problems he inherited when MEC took over the racetrack. In 1987, he reopened the historic Rialto Poolroom and off-track betting parlor in downtown Portland operating it until he retired in 2017. He also served on the Oregon Thoroughbred Breeders Association board.

Born in Portland May 3, 1934, McFadden's parents were successful racehorse owners and trainers in the Midwest and West. He would take his first steps at Churchill Downs. After the death of McFadden's father, he and his two siblings were raised by Goldblatt's parents, splitting time between their potato farm in Tule Lake, Calif., and the family's Pleasure Acres farm near Corvallis, Ore. McFadden's grandfather Julian McFadden founded the Corvallis farm in 1912 and used to host match races there, earning the family the title "First Family of Oregon horse racing." Julian McFadden also served as an Oregon state legislator and became the state's first racing commissioner. Arthur McFadden and his siblings would later change their surname to McFadden.

McFadden graduated from Tule Lake High School before attending Santa Clara University. He went into military service during the Korean War and later as a member of the U.S. Army's Honor Guard was stationed at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C., where he was a guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After his service, McFadden returned to Oregon where he followed in his grandfather Julian McFadden's footsteps by attending law school. McFadden graduated from Lewis and Clark's Northwestern School of Law and practiced in Portland.

Another horse racing influence in McFadden's family was the family's trainer Ralph "Uncle Buck" Buchanan. McFadden worked with him, shipping racehorses by railroad boxcars to Midwest racetracks. Goldblatt trained two Portland Meadows Mile Handicap winners, one of who was Beau Julian, whom she campaigned with Buchanan. Beau Julian also won the Oregon Derby and was third in the 1972 Illinois Derby.

McFadden's first winner as an owner was Good Judgment at Portland Meadows, a 1957 gelding by Smolensko, whom he also bred. Another one of Arthur's winners was Charlie Hunter, a multiple winner at Longacres in Washington State, which McFadden called his favorite track despite his Oregon heritage. Charlie Hunter was named in honor of his friend and former Portland Meadows manager, who preceded McFadden.

McFadden was predeceased by his parents, older brother Ret. Col. Julian McFadden (USAF), and younger sister Kathryn Jane Brandis. Survivors include sons, Christopher McFadden, Brian McFadden, Timothy (wife, Stacey); daughter, Jennifer (Gigi) Lundgren (husband, Scott); grandchildren, Brett, Holley, Thomas, and Land, and several nieces and nephews.