By Dan Ross
Jerome Hoban has stepped down from both chairmanship of the California Association of Racing Fairs (CARF) and the board itself, according to a short resignation letter to CARF executive director Larry Swartzlander, dated last Thursday.
In response, the CARF board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to elect a new chairman, according to an email Swartzlander subsequently sent to CARF members.
“With Jerome's resignation there will also be a board position open. This will not be addressed at the Tuesday meeting,” the email states. “The Tuesday Meeting will also discuss the vice chair position.”
The resignation of Hoban, who is CEO of the Alameda County Fair at Pleasanton, has come at a critical moment for Northern California's summer fair circuit, and by extension, for California's broader racing and breeding industry.
In the middle of December, the CARF board voted unanimously to rescind a proposed Golden State Racing (GSR) meet spanning the first half of this year, due to much lower than anticipated revenues generated from the GSR meet that ran at Pleasanton between October and December. The purse overpayment at the end of the meet was around $800,000.
Thoroughbreds are currently stabled at Pleasanton and being shipped south, as part of a stabling and training agreement with the industry's Southern California interests to provide Northern Californian-based horsemen and women opportunities to run at Santa Anita.
However, that agreement currently guarantees stabling at the facility only until Mar. 25.
CARF and the Alameda County Fair have “the sole and exclusive right to extend” the agreement to June 10 “by providing written notice no later than Feb. 25, provided there are 500 or more horses stabled at Pleasanton at that time,” according to a statement issued bt Santa Anita on behalf of the Southern California stabling and vanning committee earlier this month.
If the agreement isn't extended, that could throw a major wrench into the viability of Northern California's fair circuit, the dates for which have yet to be formally issued.
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