Track workers brace for loss of Golden Gate Fields

Impending closure will cost hundreds of Bay Area jobs

Jose “Pepe” Silva was 5 when he first followed his dad around the barn in Mexico City. He took his maiden ride on a pony at age 11. Before long, just like his grandpa, dad and brother, Silva found himself working in the horse racing industry.

Now, at 38, he moves between tasks with striking efficiency. He takes horses out on the track for their early-morning exercise, typically at Golden Gate Fields and at Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. Then he fills large buckets with soap and hot water to wash his equipment. Silva also serves as a valet most afternoons, doing odd jobs such as shining boots for jockeys.

He’s one of 13 employees on trainer Blaine Wright’s crew, working diligently to care for the 35 horses Wright keeps in the Bay Area. But Silva, and the other stable workers, now wade in uncertainty given this week’s jarring news: Golden Gate Fields will permanently close in December.

“I don’t know anything about the

future,” Silva said. “I’m very worried.”

He’s not alone.

Golden Gate Fields has more than 500 workers, including 300plus who live on site, to care for nearly 1,000 horses. Most of those horses are scattered elsewhere in Northern California during the summer fair season, as racing bounces from Pleasanton to Sacramento to Santa Rosa.

That rhythm and routine abruptly became endangered last Sunday,

when The Stronach Group, owner of Golden Gate Fields, announced it will close the track at the end of the upcoming fall season. The company said it will “double down” on racing at its Southern California venues, namely Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.

This will leave the Bay Area without a major race track for the first time in nearly 90 years. Bay Meadows in San Mateo opened in 1934, shut down in 2008 and was handed

Gate Fields, but with time off in February and September.

Capitol Racing, a new division of CARF, would operate the additional thoroughbred meetings. CARF’s summer fair circuit would operate as it does currently at Pleasanton, Cal Expo, Santa Rosa, Ferndale and Fresno.

An arrangement would need to be made to accommodate Cal Expo’s evening harness racing season that runs November through April.

“Harness would like to run year-round, so we could find a place for that, maybe at Fresno,” Swartzlander said.

The announcement by the Stronach Group to close Golden Gate Fields after the Dec. 10 end of the fall meet caught the California racing community by surprise, although many felt the closure was inevitable.

“When they lay it on you so suddenly, it’s tough,” trainer Steve Sherman said. “I never thought Golden Gate would be here much more than two or three years. It’s not a surprise, but the timing is a surprise. I don’t know why they wouldn’t race until June and give us more

time to figure things out.”

The Stronach Group said it is closing Golden Gate Fields to enhance racing in Southern California — particularly at Santa Anita in Arcadia (Los Angeles County), a track it also owns. The closure of Golden Gate Fields appears certain, but whether a significant number of horses and handlers from Northern California will head south to continue racing is anything

but.

“The idea that closing Golden Gate is going to prop up Santa Anita is dubious,” said Alan Balch, executive director of California Thoroughbred Trainers. “You don’t just stop these things and convert to another model without a lot of work.”

Count Sherman, who began training on his own in 2008 when his dad Art moved to Southern California, as among

those who likely won’t make the move.

“Out of my 30 horses, maybe 10 could compete there,” Sherman said. “They’d have to run at a lower level there. If a horse is worth $25,000 (in claiming price) here, I’d have to run for $16,000 there. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to LA.”

“I could probably take 15 out of the 60 horses that I have,” said Isidro Tamayo, who began training at Golden Gate Fields in 2017 and has the second-most wins at the track the past five years. “But I really don’t want to go down there.”

The CARF plan is the alternative for the local horse industry, even if it entails a move from the Bay Area to Sacramento.

“It’s going to be a big hassle, but at the end of the day I always take the positive from the negative,” Tamayo said. “If our only option is to come to Sacramento, there are sacrifices to be made if we want to continue racing. We’ll stick together because we love horse racing and want to keep it here in Northern California.”

If Golden Gate Fields indeed is gone for good, it will experience the same fate as Bay Meadows, the San Mateo track that closed in 2008.

“Is it scary when you don’t know what your future is? Sure,” Sherman said. “It’s not always easy to pack up and leave. I grew up in San Mateo; I had to go through Bay Meadows and thought we had something to fall back on with Golden Gate, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the case.”

Photos by Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Jose “Pepe” Silva has been riding horses since he was 11. The 38-year-old Golden Gate Fields employee says being around horses is “like therapy” for him.

Blaine Wright, right, is a second generation horse trainer with a crew of 13 employees caring for 35 horses he keeps in the Bay Area.

Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle Stronach Group’s decision to close Golden Gate Fields after the Dec. 10 end of the fall meet isn’t totally unexpected, but the news still caught trainers off guard this week.