The California Horse Racing Board at a meeting on Thursday adopted a 2023 racing calendar for Southern California similar to the one in place this year. The 2023 Southern California season will consist of race meetings at Santa Anita from this Dec. 26 to June 18, and Sept. 29 to Nov. 5; meetings at Los Alamitos from June 23 to July 9, Sept. 15-24, and Dec. 8-17; and meetings at Del Mar from July 21 to Sept. 10 and Nov. 10 to Dec. 3. There will be a gap of more than a week without racing in July between the end of the Los Alamitos meeting and the start of the Del Mar season. For most of that period, Del Mar has been allotted simulcasting rights, allowing the track to derive revenue for purses. A similar calendar was in place in 2021 and 2022. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! Looking ahead, the racing board left open the possibility for a minor change in 2024 that will allow simulcasting revenue from the week without racing in July to go to purses at Los Alamitos instead of Del Mar. The racing board stopped short of fully committing to that plan on Thursday. Del Mar officials told the racing board that the track needs revenue from the July week of simulcasting to finance purses and promotions designed to lure stables and horses from other circuits. Track officials said the 2022 summer meeting overpaid purses despite all-sources handle ranking among the highest in history and showing an increase over the corresponding meeting in 2021. The racing calendar for Northern California was not finalized, and will be discussed at meetings in October. Among the tracks whose dates are still to be finalized are Cal-Expo in Sacramento, the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, and the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale. Earlier at Thursday’s meeting, the racing board gave racetracks and the California Thoroughbred Trainers one month to reach a contractual agreement on acceptable behavior for trainers regarding the care and treatment of horses. The CTT and the state’s tracks have been trying to reach agreement on the issue since 2019. “We need to have a clear understanding of what procedures should be followed should a trainer misbehave or allege to have misbehaved,” Alan Balch, executive director of the CTT, told the racing board. “We don’t want misbehaving trainers. We believe in the highest standards. We need a race meet agreement that takes into consideration a trainer’s livelihood and his side of the story.” Racing board chairman Greg Ferraro said the board will not approve applications for race meets that do not include a provision on trainer behavior as part of the agreement between the CTT and the tracks. “The bottom line is we’re getting nowhere for more than three years,” Ferraro said. “We’re not coming to a resolution. Sooner or later it has to be done to get this issue settled. “The board will not entertain nor allocate any racing applications that don’t have a signed agreement between the given track and the CTT. “That gives you one month to solve this issue. You could solve this in the back corner in 10 minutes. I would caution you not to come back and say we’re very close and don’t have an agreement.” The applications to conduct fall meetings at Golden Gate and Del Mar were scheduled to be heard at Thursday’s meeting but were postponed because of a lack of an agreement with the CTT. The Golden Gate Fields meeting is scheduled to start on Oct. 20, a day after the next scheduled racing board meeting. Golden Gate will be allowed to take entries for the opening days of that meeting even through full approval for the meeting will be pending, a racing board official said on Thursday. Applications for race meetings are typically heard by the racing board in the month prior to a track’s opening day.