Calif. panel to discuss racing dates

The California Horse Racing Board's dates committee will hold its second open hearing into the allocation of 2005 racing dates Thursday at the Alameda County Fair simulcast facility.

At a meeting of the dates committee in April, representatives of Magna Entertainment Corp. and the Bay Meadows Land Company both requested dates that have traditionally been run at Bay Meadows in San Mateo.

Magna has run meetings at Bay Meadows, operating under a lease agreement with the Bay Meadows Land Company, which owns the property. The lease expires on Dec. 31. The land company has developed its own racing management team, headed by Magna's former director of California racing, F. Jack Liebau, and expressed a desire to conduct its own meeting.

Both sides were told to submit written proposals in May for the committee to study.