California tracks differ on proposed dates for 2016

Southern California racetrack executives are scheduled to meet with a California Horse Racing Board committee at Los Alamitos on Wednesday for an initial public discussion on 2016 racing dates.

Proposals recently filed with the racing board by officials with Del Mar, Los Alamitos, and Santa Anita range from a calendar similar to what was offered in 2014 and this year to a calendar with significant changes.

Santa Anita and Del Mar have a joint proposal that closely mirrors the last two seasons. Their proposed schedule has Santa Anita conducting racing from Dec. 26 to June 30 and Sept. 29 to Nov. 6. The Breeders’ Cup races will be held at Santa Anita on Nov. 5-6, 2016.

Under that proposal, Los Alamitos would race from July 1-11, Sept. 8-25, and Dec. 8-18. The Los Alamitos December meeting would cover two weeks of racing, and not the three weeks were held in December 2014. A three-week meeting is scheduled at Los Alamitos this December.

Del Mar would race from July 13 to Sept. 5 and from Nov. 10 to Dec. 4 under that plan.

Los Alamitos has an independent proposal to run two four-week meetings from June 22 to July 19 and from Sept. 8 to Oct. 4, and not run in December.

In that scenario, Santa Anita would run its spring-summer meeting until June 21, and its autumn meeting from Oct. 5 to Nov. 15. Del Mar would run from July 20 to Sept. 7 and from Nov. 16 to Dec. 18.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Southern California race dates and stabling oversight committee is chaired by racing board committee member George Krikorian. Chuck Winner, the chairman of the racing board, serves as a member on the racing dates and stabling committee.

The issue of 2016 racing dates is scheduled to be discussed by the full board at Thursday’s monthly meeting. If a resolution is reached, the racing dates could be ratified as early as the board’s July meeting.

The full racing board is scheduled to take action on Thursday on a dispute between Santa Anita and Los Alamitos and Fairplex Park regarding racing dates on Sept. 26-27, a Saturday and Sunday.

Santa Anita wants to open its autumn meeting on that weekend, and use the days to run prep races for the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31, while Los Alamitos officials contend that the weekend should be run at their track as the third and final weekend of a September meeting conducted on behalf of Fairplex Park.

Fairplex Park no longer conducts race meetings at the Los Angeles County Fair grounds in Pomona. In 2014, Fairplex Park moved that race meeting to Los Alamitos.

Officials with the tracks have held discussions in recent months to reach a resolution on the disputed dates, but have not reached an agreement.