CARF

Summer race-date allocations for meets at both Pleasanton and Ferndale failed to advance at Thursday's California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting. The former request got voted down and the latter failed to garner enough votes to be decided either way, jeopardizing the prospect of any fairs-style racing in the state for 2025. The commissioners who voted and stakeholders who testified were split on the best path forward for California racing as a whole, widening an existential Northern-vs.-Southern rift that opened nearly two years ago when The Stronach Group (TSG) announced...

After a flurry of activity this past week which appeared to breathe life into the idea of Pleasanton racetrack remaining open for training and stabling, potentially even for a race-meet this summer, the facility looks set to end its current tenure as a state licensed auxiliary training and stabling center midnight Tuesday. "Please be aware that as of March 25 at midnight, Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton will no longer be an approved auxiliary training facility of Santa Anita Park. The agreement between the Southern Stabling and Vanning Committee (TOC...

Politicians and key industry figures are pushing for Pleasanton racetrack to extend stabling and training at the facility beyond the current March 25 deadline and to potentially hold a race-meet there this summer, a vote on which could be held during Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association board meeting Tuesday. While in some quarters, hopes are high that a vote will go ahead and the extension granted, such an effort is far from a slam dunk. Alameda County Fairgrounds management argues that any extension would be made difficult because of long-standing...

The most recent shifts in Northern California horse racing have prompted The Big Fresno Fair Board of Directors and Fair Management to make the decision to postpone horse racing in 2025, according to a press release from the operator on Wednesday. Factors cited by the fair include, the uncertainty regarding the availability of horses, increased financial risk and the lack of a racing management collective for Northern California fairs. The decision allows for continued in-depth industry analysis to assess the viability of horse racing at the site before making any...

It now appears as if only two of the five tracks that ran summer fairs meets in Northern California in 2024 are willing to consider giving racing a go in 2025, exacerbating the racetrack fallout in that region that started when The Stronach Group ceased operations at Golden Gate Fields, the region's lone commercial track, last June. "Ferndale has expressed interest," Oscar Gonzales, the vice chair of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), said at Thursday's monthly board meeting. "They're trying to bring together the different components. Fresno, their fair...

Following the announcement that the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) will not apply for 2025 race dates and that CARF and Alameda County Fair have decided to end Pleasanton stabling Mar. 25, stakeholders in southern California will now intensify efforts to develop a single circuit to create a positive platform for Thoroughbred racing at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Alamitos, the Southern California Stabling and Vanning Committee said in a press release late on Thursday. The new version of California Thoroughbred racing will continue to offer suitable racing...

The California Association of Racing Fairs (CARF) voted unanimously Tuesday morning not to apply for racing dates in 2025. The summer fair meets this decision could impact are at Alameda County Fair, The Big Fresno Fair, Cal Expo at California State Fair, and Ferndale at Humboldt County Fair. Sonoma County Fair runs a summer fair meet independent of CARF. In theory, individual tracks can still independently apply for a 2025 racing license similar to Sonoma's approach. "After making the difficult decision not to submit future race meet applications, the California...

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...

On Monday, the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) board voted unanimously (with one abstention) to rescind a proposed Golden State Racing meet spanning the first half of next year, essentially leaving Northern California without Thoroughbred racing in 2025 outside of the annual suite of summer fair meets. This means that the Northern Californian horsemen and women have had little time to respond and adapt to a proposal by the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) and 1/ST Racing and Gaming--a business entity under The Stronach Group (TSG) umbrella--to maintain a...

The California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) board voted unanimously Monday to rescind a proposed Golden State Racing meet spanning the first half of next year, plunging an already tenuous situation for the horsemen and women in the North of the state into a world of even greater uncertainty. The decision was met with dismay and concern during Monday's online CARF meeting, with several stakeholders in Northern California voicing fears that the move would also jeopardize the future of the California fair meets. "I am in concert with Aidan Butler...

Although the future of the Golden State Racing (GSR) meet at Pleasanton wasn't officially on Thursday's California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) agenda, the reverberations of dismal betting business through the first five weeks of operation at Northern California's new anchor track became the impassioned focal point of the Nov. 21 meeting. Citing concerns that the autumn Pleasanton meet isn't living up to the hope that the former fairs-season-only track might help fill the NorCal void that occurred when The Stronach Group (TSG) closed Golden Gate Fields back in June, Aidan...

You have to root for the people who strive so hard to make a go of racing in Northern California after Golden Gate Fields shut its doors for good June 9. Racing has a rich history in Northern California and there are hundreds of people, from hotwalkers to grooms to trainers to breeders, and everybody in between, who depend on the sport to put food on the table. They deserve better than the uncertainty that has left most everyone worrying about their futures after The Stronach Group announced it was...