Stakeholders scrambling to set up racing in Northern California

The fate of Thoroughbred racing in Northern California will be largely determined in the next 60 days.

With Golden Gate Fields scheduled to close in June, a group of owners, breeders, and trainers are scrambling to start a race meeting in late September at the Cal-Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento or the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton that will serve as a replacement venue.

The goal is to provide continuity for the sport in that part of the state following the summertime county fair meetings at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Ferndale.

Timing is a major concern. The California Horse Racing Board is scheduled to meet next in late March, when the issue of racing dates for the final months of 2024 is expected to be discussed.

At that meeting, the group planning a replacement meeting hope to provide the racing board with a clearer indication of their plans, while assuring participants on the Northern California circuit that racing will continue.

On Friday, members of the group are scheduled to meet with the board of directors of Cal-Expo to discuss a potential race meeting at that venue. Among the topics expected to be discussed is an alteration of the property to allow for Thoroughbred racing as well as the continuation of harness racing for two meetings a year on a yet-to-be-constructed track with a circumference of seven-eighths of a mile on the infield of the existing one-mile track.

Under the plan, the infield track will be used for harness racing, while Thoroughbred racing would be used on the one-mile track.

The plan was introduced at a California Horse Racing Board meeting in Sacramento on Jan. 18 and was met with skepticism by some racing board members who stated concerns about financing, environmental regulations, and construction issues required to complete the project in eight months.

At the meeting, Larry Swartzlander, president of the California Association of Racing Fairs, told the racing board that racing at Pleasanton is a viable alternative.

Finalizing a plan for the last months of 2024 is critical not only for racing, but also for the upcoming breeding season, according to Justin Oldfield, an owner and breeder who chairs the working group.

There are indications that a revamped schedule could start at Pleasanton later this year with Sacramento remaining a long-term option, Oldfield said.

“We’re not trying to make a snap decision,” Oldfield said in an interview last weekend. “We’re trying to make the best decision.”

Oldfield said the group is working to determine costs related to permitting and construction for expanding Sacramento.

Oldfield, who operates Daehling Ranch in Elk Grove, Calif., said racing has three options this fall – racing at Sacramento or at Pleasanton, or racing at Pleasanton while construction begins at Sacramento to provide racing “with a more viable long-term future in Sacramento.”

“Those are decisions that will be made real soon,” he said.

“There is going to be a plan. We are in the stages of determining for our own stakeholders what the best option will be.”

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Oldfield emphasized that dealing with officials at Pleasanton or Sacramento takes time.

“We’re not dealing with private companies,” he said. “We’re dealing with public entities.

“That isn’t a group of people with a CEO sitting around a board room that can make a decision in 30 minutes.”

Oldfield spoke briefly toward the end of the racing board’s meeting on Jan. 18 during a session devoted to public comments, expressing concern that the lack of continuity in racing would have a devastating impact on racing in Northern California.

Oldfield said he later spoke privately with some members of the racing board and its executive team about the Northern California group’s proposals.

“Horses leave the state,” he said in an interview last weekend. “Breeding becomes non-existent. Breeding stops in the north. People leave. Trainers leave. They are not going to Southern California.”

Tracks in Southern California, and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, urged the racing board earlier this month to consolidate racing to the southern circuit following the closure of Golden Gate Fields. The tracks and TOC are seeking to use revenue from simulcasting in Northern California to pay regulatory obligations of the southern tracks, or use those dollars for purses.

Del Mar and Santa Anita are currently facing a combined debt of more than $6 million in their purse pools because of a decline in handle. The tracks have cut purses in recent months, and may do so later this year, officials told the racing board.

Oldfield said last weekend without a planned race meeting for the fall that the infrastructure of racing in that part of the state could rapidly disintegrate. He said that while some trainers with stables in Northern California have runners that can compete at Southern California tracks many do not.

“If you’re going to go south [and have horses] that don’t fit or can’t compete, you won’t be a trainer in Southern California for very long,” he said.

Oldfield said a disruption to racing on a year-round basis in Northern California will ruin the fair circuit.

“We all know what will happen,” he said. “If there is no horse population in the north, there won’t be a horse population at the fairs.”

Friday’s meeting at Cal-Expo will determine a course of action in coming weeks.

“People believe we can get this done,” Oldfield said. “I’m very positive. We continue to work with breeders in the north so that they know what is going on.

“We’ll get one shot at doing this. We want to do it the right way.”

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