CHRB rebuffs Santa Anita, gives Pleasanton thumbs up
Defying Santa Anita’s dire warnings, the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday approved plans for an autumn thoroughbred season at the Pleasanton fairgrounds in Northern California’s East Bay.
The decision, by a 6-0 vote with one member absent, capped an emotional meeting in Sacramento where the board quizzed proponents of replacing soon-to-close Golden Gate Fields with Pleasanton and scorned Santa Anita and Del Mar executives who claim the sport must consolidate in the south of the state to survive here.
Tensions had risen Tuesday when Craig Fravel, executive vice chairman of 1/ST Racing, which runs Santa Anita for the Stronach Group, said in a letter to CHRB members that the Arcadia track might close if Southern California interests don’t receive more simulcast wagering revenue, which would have happened if Northern California was denied a major meet.
The California Association of Racing Fairs proposed to run a 10-week meet at Pleasanton beginning in October, as well as summer meets for three weeks at Santa Rosa, for four weeks at Ferndale and
LOS ANGELES >> for four weeks at Fresno.
Golden Gate Fields, in Albany, Calif., is scheduled to close for good in June.
“This is a very difficult position for the board to be in. No matter what decision we make, we have half the state mad at us,” CHRB chairman Greg Ferraro said at the outset.
It seemed clear that the board wasn’t swayed — in fact, was angered — by Fravel’s letter warning that Santa Anita’s owners might seek “alternative uses” for its 320 acres if Northern California was thrown a lifeline.
“I think we all took umbrage in the threat contained in your letter the other day,” board member Thomas Hudnut told Fravel.
“It comes across as if, ‘You don’t do it my way, I’m going to take my ball and leave,’ “said board member Damascus Castellanos.
When Fravel said the letter was “not intended to be a threat,” many in the pro-northern California audience laughed.
The board heard from nearly two dozen racing industry employees and members of the public, the vast majority calling for Northern California racing to be given, as one said, “a fighting chance.”
The board had questions about holding 26 racing days at Pleasanton, which has been holding shorter meets coinciding with the Alameda County fair. CARF executive director Larry Schwartzlander and Albany County fairgrounds CEO Jerome Hoban were challenged on issues such as the likely lower race purses at Pleasanton compared to Golden Gate, attracting horsemen and fans for a non-fair season, providing housing for backstretch workers, paying for more horse stalls and adding a turf course by 2025. They said the funding is available for improvements.
“Will we do things differently? Absolutely, it has to be different to be successful,” Hoban said. “Do I think we will succeed? Absolutely.”
The racing board could have put off the decision until an April meeting and gathered more information. But most members, beginning with Brenda Washington Davis, said it was vital to vote Thursday.
Under state legislation, the southern tracks would receive all of the state’s simulcast revenue if there’s no racing hub in the north.
Fravel said that if the Pleasanton plan went through, Santa Anita would begin next week to set purse cuts for the rest of the season that runs to June 16 to try to reduce a $4 million deficit for the past three months.