Northern California 2019 racing dates still up in the air

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Southern California Thoroughbred schedule will be largely unchanged in 2019, but the Northern California schedule, particularly July and August, remains unresolved, according to discussions during an hour-long meeting of the California Horse Racing Board’s dates committee on Wednesday.

The full racing board is scheduled to discuss 2019 dates at its monthly meeting at Del Mar on Thursday.

The Southern California circuit will start at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 and continue until June 23, Los Alamitos will have meetings from June 27 to July 14, Sept. 5-22, and Dec. 5-15. Del Mar’s summer season will run from July 17 to Sept. 2, while the fall meeting will run from Nov. 8 to Dec. 1.

The Santa Anita autumn meeting, which will include the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1-2, will run from Sept. 27 to Nov. 3. Del Mar was scheduled to run the first weekend of November in 2019, but those dates have been conceded to Santa Anita, track officials told the committee.

The Northern California schedule is the subject of ongoing conversations with officials from Golden Gate Fields and the fair circuit regarding summertime stabling and which venues will operate in July and August. Golden Gate Fields is scheduled to run from Dec. 26 through June 9 before the fair season starts at Pleasanton. Meetings are scheduled for Cal Expo in Sacramento, the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, and the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale through the summer.

Humboldt officials are seeking to run without opposition from Golden Gate Fields in late August for at least one week of their two-week meetings to maximize revenue from simulcasting. Golden Gate officials said they want to run that week at Golden Gate for the same reason.

There is a possibility Golden Gate Fields could run a four-day week in late July, between meetings at Cal-Expo in July and Sonoma county in August, pending discussions about whether Golden Gate Fields will be open for stabling during the bulk of the summer.

The racing board stabling committee is scheduled to meet in September. The issue is unlikely to be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, racing board vice chair Madeline Auerbach said.

“Whatever we do, we’ll make someone unhappy,” she said.