Ahead of a March 21 showdown over racing dates, 1/ST Racing executive Craig Fravel penned a letter to the California Horse Racing Board saying the track operator would conduct “an analysis of alternative uses” for Santa Anita Park if racing is authorized in Northern California at Pleasanton this fall.
1/ST Racing, a subsidiary of The Stronach Group, will close Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, Calif., in June and desires to consolidate racing in the southern part of the state. In addition to other tracks across the country, 1/ST Racing owns and operates Santa Anita Park and San Luis Rey Training Center in Southern California.
Short fair meets are to take place this summer in Northern California, as usual.
During the last CHRB meeting in January, Southern California racetrack operators and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, citing short fields throughout the state and purse overpayments, encouraged the board to limit racing in the north and redirect simulcast funds to bolster overpaid Southern California purses.
Since then, officials from the California Association of Racing Fairs have submitted a proposal for a 26-day fall meet at Pleasanton, where a summer fair meet has taken place over the years. The CHRB could take action on that request on Thursday.
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KING: CARF Proposes Continued NorCal Racing at Pleasanton
In a three-page letter dated March 19 and initially reported by the Los Angeles Times, Fravel was critical of the limited details outlined in that proposal and urged that the board decline to allocate dates to CARF, writing that racing in California “is at a crossroads.”
Craig Fravel
“Purses at both Del Mar and Santa Anita are significantly overpaid and the competition from states with significant purse account subsidies from slot machines, video lottery terminals, and historic horse racing games puts California at a serious disadvantage in attracting horses in sufficient numbers to fill race cards,” continued the 1/ST Racing and Gaming executive vice chairman, citing declining starters and race days in California.
He added: “In the last five years, Santa Anita has incurred operating losses in excess of $31 million while investing over $32 million in significant capital projects such as the new Tapeta training track, the new turf chute on the backstretch, and CAFO-mandated environmental compliance projects required to permit continued operation.”
He said when they decided to close Golden Gate last June, “it was with these financial and operational realities at the forefront. The current model is simply unsustainable 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’s full letter can be viewed here.
During the last CHRB meeting in January in Sacramento, CHRB commissioners and officials offered mixed reactions to continued racing in Northern California and the proposal to redirect simulcast funds to the southern tracks. Some commissioners and CHRB employees questioned the feasibility and cost estimates of CARF’s proposal at the time to race at Cal Expo, while others expressed dismay at 1/ST Racing’s handling of the closure of Golden Gate Fields and 25% purse cuts there meant to offset a massive purse overpayment.
“We would be so further along if The Stronach Group would have came to us with proper notice, such as Hollywood Park and others have done, and the groups that are in this room today could have gotten together and probably been done with this plan, whether yes or no,” commissioner Damascus Castellanos said to applause from a large group of Northern California horsemen in attendance.
He added that the closure was Golden Gate “was leaked to us and it wasn’t right.”
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During that meeting, Southern California officials said redirecting simulcast money from the north would only allow the south to sustain purses, which already trail regions that can supplement purses with gaming revenue. Absent that, purse cuts would be needed, they said.
CHRB executive director Scott Chaney said in January he did not consider this possibility as a threat. “I view it as sort of just reality,” he said.
Besides purse cuts, Fravel wrote in his Tuesday letter to the CHRB that continued racing at Northern California would cause 1/ST Racing to re-evaluate planned investments totaling $7 million at Santa Anita, which were to “be completed this summer. Should those projects be deemed unfeasible, further operation of Santa Anita and San Luis Rey as training and stabling facilities may be in jeopardy.”
Santa Anita, designated on the National Register of Historic Places, is located in Arcadia in Southern California. The 320-acre property is valuable real estate in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains
CARF announced on March 20 that its board of directors had unanimously approved its proposal to race in the fall at Pleasanton at the Alameda County Fairgrounds “to create an accessible crown jewel of Northern California horse racing.”
TOC president and CEO Bill Nader said last week that its board would meet on March 20 before Thursday’s CHRB meeting.
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