Trainer Faith Taylor considering retiring due to Northern California's changing landscape

The widespread changes taking place in California this winter may lead trainer Faith Taylor to make the ultimate career change. Taylor said on Thursday that she is considering retiring after a lifelong involvement in many aspects of the sport.

Taylor, 72, has a 14-horse stable based at the Alameda county fair in Pleasanton in Northern California. On Thursday afternoon, the California Authority of Racing Fairs said training would cease at Pleasanton in late March, a decision that will force trainers based on the property to seek other venues. Earlier in the week, the organization said it will not seek racing dates at four venues in Pleasanton, Sacramento, Ferndale, and Fresno this year, all but ending the fair circuit.

A few hours before Thursday’s stabling announcement, Taylor discussed her long-term plans as well as hopes for this weekend. She has two runners at Santa Anita this weekend – Lmlooknformischief in an allowance race on Friday, and Southern Tornado in a $32,000 claiming race for 3-year-old maidens at six furlongs on Sunday.

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Racing ceased at Pleasanton in December. Since then, Santa Anita has enacted a program to run a small number of races daily for horses based at Pleasanton. Lmlooknformischief is part of a race restricted to horses or horsemen that have been based in Northern California since the beginning of 2024.

“We’re hanging in there, kind of a one-day-at-a-time thing,” she said of the Pleasanton racing community. “We’re shipping and running at Santa Anita and it is working okay. Otherwise, it’s pretty stressful.

“A lot of people are in a daze.”

Some trainers are considering relocating to Emerald Downs in Washington state, while others are moving stables to Southern California. Taylor said she may not do either.

“I’m up in the air,” she said. “I’ve been at this a long time. I’m not ready to retire, but I’m seriously considering it.

“It would be hard for me to up and go. I’ve got a lot of roots here. It was great when things were in the vicinity. It’s tough to think about getting up and running around all over the place.

“I like Emerald and I‘ve been there on a few occasions. I can’t really see it working out for me.”

Taylor has a farm in Clayton, Calif., about 30 miles from Pleasanton.

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“I used to break and train 2-year-olds for the track,” she said. “I can do lay-ups. I have a broodmare.

“I’ve been at it since I was 20. I started out galloping and walking hots. I’ve been an assistant trainer and ponied.

“I’ve done it all,” she said with a laugh.

Aside from her active stable, there is the complication of what to do with seven horses being prepared to join her team, a group that includes five 2-year-olds, she said.

“I don’t know what will happen to those guys,” Taylor said. “They’ll be ready to come in in March and have nowhere to go.”

Taylor had her first runner in 1981 and trained until 1994. She resumed training in 2016 and had her best year in 2022, winning 25 races from 150 runners. All of the wins in 2022 were at Golden Gate Fields or on the Northern California fair circuit. Golden Gate Fields closed permanently last June, which resulted in Pleasanton becoming the year-round home for training in that part of the state.

“I wish they’d have the fairs,” she said. “I’ve done all right at the fairs. It doesn’t look like that will happen with the way things are going.

“There will not be enough horses.”

If she retired, Taylor said she may spend more time working with dogs who appear in television commercials. She said she had success in that realm recently when one of her Jack Russell terriers appeared in a commercial for a major hotel chain.

Taylor had her first career win at Santa Anita in Bobby Anton in a $5,000 claimer on Jan. 16. She had five runners at Santa Anita from 2016 to 2018 and had seven runners at the current meeting through Thursday.

Southern Tornado, who Taylor owns and bred, was winless in three starts at Fresno and Pleasanton last year, including a third in his second start. The distance of Sunday’s race may not be ideal.

“It’s not really the race right for him,” she said. “I think he wants to go longer. We were having so much trouble getting him in.”

For Taylor, and many of her colleagues in Northern California, such races at any distance are a necessity to have racing opportunities in a tumultuous winter.

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