California dates for 2021 yet to be resolved

The location of summer racing in Northern California and the possibility of a July week without racing in Southern California in 2021 were two leading topics discussed in a two-hour meeting of the California Horse Racing Board’s dates committee on Wednesday.

Meeting via teleconference, the meeting focused largely on Thoroughbred dates, but did not reach a final proposal. Racing board vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales, who directs the dates committee, plans to make a presentation to the board on Thursday reviewing Wednesday’s meeting. Gonzales said the dates committee would not recommend a 2021 calendar until September at the earliest.

The division of racing dates among Northern California fairs and Golden Gate Fields from mid-June to early September was unresolved. Five fairs operate in that portion of the state at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale and Fresno.

The Big Fresno Fair is held in October at end of the county fair season. Discussions on Wednesday focused on which weeks the other fairs would operate and whether the Humboldt County fair meeting in Ferndale would be run in conjunction with racing at Golden Gate Fields. If that occurs, Humboldt would receive considerably less revenue from simulcasting.

Greg Avioli, the president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, suggested that Golden Gate Fields and the fairs operate concurrently, if finances and sufficient horses were available.

This year, Pleasanton is the only summer fair to operate so far because of the coronavirus pandemic. The dates for the Cal-Expo fair in Sacramento were moved to Pleasanton, while the Sonoma County Fair dates in Santa Rosa were moved to Golden Gate Fields.

The Southern California calendar may have gaps between seasons in 2021 to allow tracks a chance to generate additional money for purses from simulcasting.

The end of the Los Alamitos summer meeting in early July and the start of the Del Mar summer meeting in 2021 is unresolved. Del Mar would like to have simulcast rights for the weekend of July 9-11, but does not plan to begin its meeting until July 17, according to track president Josh Rubinstein. Los Alamitos officials would like to race on the weekend of July 9-11 to provide owners and trainers whose horses are not competitive at Del Mar with opportunities for additional racing.

Del Mar has requested eight weeks of racing from July 17 to Sept. 6 and a five-week meeting from Nov. 3 to Dec. 5 that will include the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 5-6. Los Alamitos has also requested racing dates on the first weekend of December.

This year, Los Alamitos is conducting five weeks of daytime Thoroughbred racing, down from eight weeks from 2014 to 2019. The track is seeking to restore an eight-week schedule in 2021.

From 2014 to 2019, Los Alamitos ran the Los Angeles County Fair dates in September, but that meeting has been moved to December this year after the racing board awarded September dates to Santa Anita this year.

Santa Anita has the right to begin that meeting on the weekend of Sept. 11-13, but will ask the racing board on Thursday for a start date on Sept. 19 to provide a gap following the closure of the Del Mar summer meeting on Sept. 7.