Horse racing is not for long at Golden Gate Fields, but the livelihood for many who work at the track may have been salvaged last week in Sacramento.
In a Thursday vote that could save the sport in Northern California, the California Horse Racing Board allocated 26 dates this fall to Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. The Pleasanton group still must finalize licensing with the state board, though vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales Jr. said he was “confident the application would be accepted.”
Tensions ran high in the wake of a divisive letter from The Stronach Group, which will continue to own Santa Anita Park in Southern California after it closes Golden Gate Fields in June. The March 19 letter urged the board to deny the Pleasanton dates, stating that horse racing in Northern and Southern California is “unsustainable.”
Board member Damascus Castellanos called the letter a “bully” tactic. “That’s not cool,” he scolded Craig Fravel, executive vice-chairman of The Stronach Group (or 1/ST Racing and Gaming), as Fravel addressed the board before the vote. “It shouldn’t have been done, but that’s how you chose to play the game.”
Jerome Hoban, CEO of Alameda County Fairgrounds, 30 miles southeast of Berkeley, told the board he was “dumbfounded” by the letter. “Us or them” is how he interpreted it. One public speaker called it a “ransom letter.”
“No matter what decision we make,” CHRB chairman Gregory Ferraro said, “we will have half the state mad at us.”
Many of the 200-plus in attendance were jockeys, breeders, trainers and owners who live and/or work at Golden Gate Fields, a 100-acre property on the Albany-Berkeley border. Without opportunities to race in the area, most would have to move or give up their careers. One by one, they backed the Pleasanton proposal during public comment.
“A lot of us jocks have built a career here,” said jockey William Antongeorgi III, who rode Sonoma Dreaming to victory at Golden Gate Fields earlier this month. “I have a family that I support. If we don’t get the dates, a lot of us jocks will have to move. Who knows if they’ll break in at new tracks and have to move to different states. So give us a shot.”
“I beg you to consider the disruption that will occur,” said jockey Irving Orozco, who rode Sea of Liberty to a come-from-behind victory at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.
“Not awarding dates to the North will result in the complete collapse of (racehorse) breeding in Northern California,” said horse owner Justin Oldfield.
The 26 dates allocated to the 1-mile dirt track at Alameda County Fairgrounds are from Oct. 16 to Dec. 25, with most races Friday through Sunday. The California Authority of Racing Fairs would operate the meet under Golden State Racing branding. There are also 44 dates allocated for simulcast-only betting at the track.
“We want to show that we can make this work,” horse trainer Jamey Thomas told the board.
Hoban called the unanimous 6-0 board vote “a step in the right direction, but there is so, so much more to do.” That includes finalizing the application and getting purses (money allocated to winners) that “everyone in the North can live with.”
Alameda County Fairgrounds slated for horse racing
The meet application will likely be considered by the board in August, according to a meeting summary. If approved, Alameda County Fairgrounds would replace Golden Gate Fields as the epicenter of Northern California’s thoroughbred racing community.
Concerns from California Horse Racing Board members, who are appointed by the governor, included housing for workers (RVs are proposed), adequate stalls for horses (Pleasanton has 664 stalls, while Golden Gate Fields has more than 800), project financing (CARF says it has “$900,000 in cash reserves” and “member financing of up to $4,000,000”), water pollution, a golf course inside the track, marketing and weather. Two men from Thoroughbred Owners of California shared doubts about purse sizes.
There was little to no discussion of horse safety at the meeting. According to CHRB data, the dirt track at Alameda County Fairgrounds had five horse deaths from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023. Golden Gate Fields, with about 10 times as many starts during those 24 months, had 35 horse deaths on its synthetic and turf tracks.
Golden Gate Fields, which opened in 1941, has been the only full-time thoroughbred track in Northern California since Bay Meadows closed in 2007. CalExpo in Sacramento hosts harness racing. Five fair sites, including Pleasanton, operate meets on three to four weekends.
The Stronach Group announced in July that it was shutting down Golden Gate Fields to “double down” on racing and training at its Southern California properties. The March 19 letter to the board members offered the group’s public outlook for racing in the state.
“The current model is simply unsustainable,” The Stronach Group letter read, “and without alternative gaming subsidies the only sensible approach is to focus our collective efforts on generating revenue statewide while investing in our premier properties in Southern California. While this is understandably disconcerting to owners, trainers, and workers in the North the ultimate survival of the full ecosystem is at risk.”
Fravel took responsibility for the letter (he did sign it) while speaking to the board before the vote. “It’s not intended to be a threat,” he said to jeers throughout the room.
Fravel sat alongside Josh Rubinstein, president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Southern California. They said California no longer has enough horses to support both regions. When Fravel couldn’t tell the board how his purses would be affected by the vote, board member Wendy Mitchell said he “should have come with receipts.”
Mitchell, who asked many of the most pointed questions, called horse racing an “industry in decline” and asked for the state’s rival factions to work together.
“This is California versus everyone,” she said, “not North versus South.”
