Racing with spectators may be months away in California

While Santa Anita officials are eager to receive government approval to resume racing without spectators in May, it could be months before the stands are occupied with racegoers.

Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has a four-stage recovery plan from the coronavirus pandemic, beginning with the expansion of testing and procuring of safety equipment. The second stage is the opening of schools, offices, and some retail operations with social-distancing rules, followed by a third stage of opening gyms, hair salons, movie theaters, and sporting events without audiences.

The final stage would include opening concert venues, resuming conventions, and holding sporting events with spectators.

Newsom stressed that California is in the first stage.

Track officials have been trying to convince the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to allow racing to resume without spectators in the near future. Racing took place without spectators from March 14-22, and without horse owners present on the weekend of March 20-22.

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The track was closed on March 27 when county health officials deemed the racetrack as a nonessential business.

Tuesday, the county board of supervisors approved a measure requiring county officials to form a report by May 5 with plans of how to relax stay-at-home measures and prepare to reopen some businesses while ensuring social-distancing and face-covering protocols.

“People want to see a plan, a framework, so they can be part of knowing when we will reopen,” supervisor Janice Hahn said at the meeting.

Absent of approval in coming days, track officials are hoping racing can be part of the May 5 report that could hasten a resumption of racing.

The meeting was held via teleconference, but a group of racing proponents were part of a rally in front of the downtown Los Angeles government building that houses the board of supervisors headquarters.

During the meeting, the names of more than 60 people involved in various aspects of racing were read into the public record in support of the county reopening the racetrack.

Through Wednesday, Santa Anita has lost 15 days of racing since it was forced to close, a figure that will rise to 18 through the upcoming weekend. Track officials are hoping to resume racing as early as the middle of May with an amended stakes schedule through the conclusion of the track’s season on June 21.

In mid-April, track officials submitted a proposal to county health officials detailing added protocols that would be put in place to prevent the spread of the virus and allow racing to resume. Officials had hopes to receive approval by now.

Newsom, speaking in a press conference on Tuesday, did not offer a timeline on how quickly California could progress through the four-stage process of reopening businesses and regaining a sense of normalcy.

“I want to remind folks of the dynamic nature of this effort and the very sober framework in which we make decisions on the basis of facts and data and not ideology, not what we want, not what we hope but what actually is and what we confidently can predict in the short and medium time,” Newsom said. “If we pull back too quickly and we walk away from our credible commitment to not only bend this curve, but to stop this spread and suppress the spread of this virus, it could start a second wave even more damaging than the first and undo all the good work and progress that you’ve made.

“That can happen like this,” he said, snapping his fingers.

“The virus has not gone away,” he said. “Its virulence is still as acute and its ability to be transmitted still is dominate. We, by no stretch, are out of the woods."