Pleasanton opens meet with uncertainty in Northern California

The Alameda County Fair meeting begins a four-week run at Pleasanton on Friday under the direction of a management team tasked with the not-so-simple job of salvaging Northern California racing in coming months.

Golden Gate Fields in Albany, near Oakland, closed permanently on Sunday. The track served as a regional hub, hosting more than seven months of racing annually since the closure of Bay Meadows in 2008.

Now, Northern California racing is going through a restructuring phase. Pleasanton is the first of five stops on the fair circuit, which continues through the summer at Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Ferndale before an autumn meeting at Fresno.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

In mid-October, racing will resume at Pleasanton for a nine-week meeting, replacing dates previously run at Golden Gate Fields. The success of that meeting, as well as the fairs in coming months, is vital to the longevity of racing in Northern California without a track in the immediate San Francisco-Oakland area.

The Pleasanton fall meeting will be conducted by Golden State Racing, a group of owners, trainers, and breeders who formed an organization earlier this year to sustain racing in Northern California. The California Authority of Racing Fairs, which administers most of the fair meetings, will handle day-to-day business.

This week, CARF officials have been busily preparing for Friday’s opening day at Pleasanton while continuing long-term arrangements for the fall meeting. Behind-the-scenes work has focused on arranging housing for backstretch workers and the completion of temporary stalls that will give the barn area a year-round capacity for more than 940 horses.

The current horse population at Pleasanton is 875, according to racing secretary Tom Doutrich.

“I would have thought we would be down to 500 or 600 horses,” Doutrich said. “These guys have hung in there. It gives us a chance to rebuild.”

The 13-day county fair meeting runs through July 7 with racing on a Friday-through-Sunday basis as well as on July 4.

The county fair meeting has purses slightly higher than at Golden Gate, which slashed overnight prize money by 25 percent last December to recoup a $3 million purse overpayment accumulated in recent years.

Golden Gate cut a majority of its stakes, running only two races worth $275,000. Pleasanton has scheduled five stakes worth $400,000, highlighted by the $150,000 Pleasanton Mile on July 7.

On Friday, racing begins at 1:45 p.m. Pacific with a six-race program, one less than on opening day of the 2023 fair meeting. Golden Gate Fields struggled with entries in the final two months of its meeting, canceling six days of racing.

Doutrich said entries are likely to be light this weekend, but he expects stronger support on the second week after stables have moved out of Golden Gate Fields.

“Once we get past the first weekend, I can get into a flow,” he said. “When they get moved in, they’ll feel more comfortable.

“We need to build this back up.”

Jockey Assael Espinoza, who won the riding title at Golden Gate Fields, has three mounts on Friday, while Alexander Chavez, the leading rider at the 2023 county fair meeting at Pleasanton, has four mounts.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.