Just as the 4-year-old filly Gadding seems to have found her purpose on the Golden Gate Fields turf course, the track will close permanently on Sunday. Gadding won her grass debut, and first start of 2024, in a maiden race at a mile on turf on May 10, closing from fourth in an 8-1 upset. Gadding, who races for owner and breeder Philip Paine, takes a jump in class when she faces winners for the first time in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf on Friday. This is likely to be her last start on turf in the near future. Golden Gate Fields is scheduled to race from Friday through Sunday. The Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton begins on June 14. After Golden Gate’s closure, turf opportunities in Northern California will be nearly non-existent. The only other track with a grass course is the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa which runs a brief meeting in the summer. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Pleasanton, which has only a dirt track, will hold a nine-week meeting beginning in late October, taking over racing dates previously run at Golden Gate Fields. Officials with Golden State Racing, which will operate the autumn meeting at Pleasanton, have stated they plan to construct a turf course. Until that occurs, Gadding may be forced to race on dirt, or in much tougher turf races in Southern California, to have a complete campaign this year, trainer Jose Bautista said. “It seems she handles the grass better than she has ever done,” Bautista said. “I think the older she’s getting, the better.” Gadding is part of a field of seven in the fifth race on a six-race program on Friday that begins at 2:50 p.m. Pacific. The track has struggled to fill races in recent months, cancelling six days of racing because of a lack of entries, most recently on May 31. Friday’s six-race card is the smallest of the season. Gadding, who drew the outside post, must show considerable improvement to beat a field that includes Grace Period, a Southern California shipper trained by Leonard Powell who was a close sixth in an allowance race at Santa Anita on May 4. Gadding and Grace Period are likely to race as stalker behind expected pacesetter Proof of Jazz. “Her stride is huge,” Bautista said of Gadding. “I think a mile and a sixteenth will help her. I’ll be happy to be in the top three.” Bautista, 39, has a 25-horse stable that will be transferred to Pleasanton next week in advance of the track’s four-week Alameda county fair meeting that runs from June 14 to July 7. Pleasanton is the first of five meetings on the northern fair circuit. Leaving Golden Gate Fields will not be easy for Bautista, who rose through the ranks while working for Tony Diaz and Keith Nations before he began training in 2010. “Those were my big mentors,” he said. “I’ve been based here for most of my life. To see this get shut down, it’s brutal. I started when I was 18.” Through Wednesday, Bautista has won 126 races. His most recent winner was Il Bellator, in an allowance race last Saturday. With the win, Il Bellator, a 5-year-old gelding, ended a nine-race losing streak, all in stakes, since a victory in the $100,000 California Derby in April 2022, Bautista’s richest win. In a sign of the economic difficulties facing Golden Gate Fields this year, the California Derby was not run. Owned and bred by Ed and Theresa DeNike of Washington State, Il Bellator is a candidate for the $150,000 Pleasanton Mile on July 7, the richest race on the fair circuit. The DeNikes also own Delusively, a 4-year-old filly Bautista said could run in stakes at Pleasanton in coming weeks, if a suitable race fails to fill this weekend at Golden Gate Fields. It was unclear early Wednesday how many races Golden Gate Fields will run this weekend. Prize money at Pleasanton will be slightly higher, leaving some owners and trainers to wait for coming opportunities. With the massive changes soon to occur in Northern California racing, Bautista, for one, is hoping to grow the stable, particularly if the Pleasanton fall meeting can help to stabilize the short-term future of the sport. “Everyone is trying to stay positive right now,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of clients that want to join my team and move forward.” Ideally, Bautista said his stable would number “35 to 40.” “Once I get over that, it’s more of a headache.” Considering the uncertainty in Northern California in recent months, a larger barn would be a good problem to have. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.