Pleasanton purses will average $170K during fall meet

The nine-week Golden State Racing meeting beginning at Pleasanton on Oct. 19 will have a daily purse distribution of approximately $170,000, a condition determined after a tense, and sometimes heated, California Horse Racing Board meeting in Sacramento on Thursday.

Golden State Racing, a consortium of Northern California-based owners, trainers and breeders and the California Authority of Racing Fairs, will operate the meeting on a three-day per week basis with approximately 24 races per week. Those terms have not been in dispute.

The prize money levels were the subject of several meetings between Golden State Racing officials and the Thoroughbred Owners of California prior to Thursday, with the two sides unable to reach a compromise. Golden State Racing officials wanted to begin the season with daily purse distribution of $147,000, rising to $163,000 with supplements included, but were rebuffed by the TOC who argued for higher prize money levels.

Earlier this year, the two sides agreed to three racing days per week, approximately 24 races per week and a $170,000 daily purse distribution.

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At Thursday’s meeting, Golden State Racing officials expressed widespread concern that handle at Pleasanton at the forthcoming meeting will not be sufficient to support higher purse levels.

After a two-hour discussion before the racing board, Golden State and TOC officials met privately before reappearing before the board an hour later with an agreement to start the meeting at $170,000, but closely watch the bottom line of the purse account.

The two sides agreed to present formal documents to racing board officials by the end of Monday.

Through the agreement, Golden State Racing will offer approximately $170,000 per day unless the purse account has a deficit of $400,000 or more. If that occurs, purses would be reduced to keep the deficit from rising above $500,000.

Larry Swartzlander, the executive director of CARF, told the racing board that handle figures are difficult to predict for the fall, but is hopeful that any shortfall in the purse pool can be recovered during a winter-spring meeting scheduled from Dec. 26 to early June. He cited heightened interest in racing in the spring, particularly on days involving Triple Crown races, as an expected source of higher handle.

Golden State Racing is on the verge of its launch despite skepticism that California can continue to support two racing circuits. In the last year, purses at Thoroughbred tracks have dropped in the state.

Prior to its closure, Golden Gate Fields cut overnight purses by 25 percent to recover a purse deficit of more than $3 million amassed from 2021 through 2023. In Southern California, Del Mar, Los Alamitos, and Santa Anita have reduced overnight purses this year because of declines in handle.

At the same time, tracks in other states, notably Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York, are offering considerably higher purses thanks to revenue from ancillary forms of gaming such as slot machines and historical horse racing machines.

California tracks do not have revenue from other forms of gaming, although officials are hoping to procure such a source of funding, including a burgeoning effort to secure historical horse racing machines.

“It seems to me that we’re at a stage in California (where) all of our racing is in danger,” racing board chairman Greg Ferraro said during Thursday’s lengthy discussion. “We can’t attract horses in the south because purses aren’t high enough and we haven’t attracted horses in the north.

“What concerns me particularly, if we make the effort to save the north will we lose the south? Looking at the numbers and the handle levels and all the parameters, it’s pretty scary.

“We have to protect the south. The south is the main supplier of racing in California. If the south goes down, then there is no racing in California.”

Ferraro’s comments were met with vocal opposition by a group of Northern California racing participants who attended Thursday’s meeting.

“You may not like what you’re going to hear,” Ferraro told the audience.

Moments later, Ferraro emphasized the importance of a successful fall meeting at Pleasanton.

“Here we are on top of this race meet with some serious questions as to viability,” he said. “If it’s not successful, it will be the end of Northern California racing.”

Later at Thursday’s meeting, the board approved racing dates for 2025 with no changes to the calendar for Southern California.

There is an unresolved dispute regarding the distribution of revenue from simulcasting during an 11-day period in December 2025 between the end of the Los Alamitos meeting on Dec. 14 and the start of the Santa Anita meeting on Dec. 26. Both tracks are seeking to secure the monies.

In Northern California, Golden State Racing will replace Golden Gate Fields with a meeting of more than five months from late December 2024 through early June, followed by fair meetings at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale and Fresno from mid-June to mid-October. Golden State Racing will conduct a fall meeting at Pleasanton in 2025.

There were no changes to the schedules of the two evening harness meetings at Sacramento, or the year-round evening Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meetings at Los Alamitos.

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