Jerry Simms

For the second time in four months, a reported sale of Turf Paradise has been called off. The track's current owner, Jerry Simms, broke the news at Friday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting without disclosing details or being pressed by regulators to provide any additional information. Preparations for a planned Jan. 29-May 4 race meet are still underway, though, according to testimony from track officials, commission employees, and representatives of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA). The revelation that the deal was a no-go didn't seem to come...

Turf Paradise received unanimous but conditional approval from the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) on Tuesday to conduct a Jan. 29-May 4 race meet. The upcoming season, however, won't be run under the auspices of the new ownership group that has been reportedly trying to buy the Phoenix track for the last two months. Instead, Turf Paradise's current owner, Jerry Simms, will still be at the helm. Simms and Arizona horsemen have had an acrimonious business relationship for the better part of two decades. But Simms vowed during the Dec. 5...

If the saga over the supposedly pending sale of now-closed Turf Paradise was a soap opera, its title would surely be "AZ the World Turns." The state's racing is hanging in the balance amid an increasingly acrimonious long-term feud between the track's owner and horsemen, leading one trainer at last Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting to liken the horse community's predicament to children "being used as pawns in a divorce battle" by vindictive parents on the verge of a nasty split. Although TDN's original story about that Oct. 12 commission...

A report that a purchase-and-sale agreement for the currently closed Turf Paradise is just days away from being inked was met with skepticism, frustration and even derision from horsemen at Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting. Although the track's owner, Jerry Simms, framed the ongoing negotiations as a lifeline for Thoroughbred racing in a state that currently has no operational commercial track, J. Lloyd Yother, the president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA), said that Simms's oft-stated expectations of a new owner being able to conduct a race...

The current Turf Paradise owner is courting a new buyer who just emerged last week as a potential savior for keeping racing alive at the state's otherwise-closing cornerstone track. On Thursday, the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) voted to extend Turf Paradise's simulcasting privileges through Nov. 12 while regulators commenced a due diligence vetting process that could greenlight the sale. The stated goal among stakeholders is to start a race meet in January under new ownership at the Phoenix oval. The current management announced back on Aug. 1 that the 67-year-old...

Turf Paradise will no longer offer live racing or simulcasting beginning Oct. 1. Jerry Simms, the owner of the Phoenix-based track, announced Monday that after 23 years of operating the race track, he is retiring to spend more time with his family. Turf Paradise also maintains 37 Off Track Betting sites throughout Arizona, which televise the live product and simulcasts from other race tracks across America for the purpose of wagering. In order for the OTB sites to operate, live racing is required. Since Turf Paradise will not be running...

The current ownership that is selling at Turf Paradise in Phoenix won't be opening the track in November as planned for its 2023-24 race meet. But horsemen are holding out hope that the incoming ownership will be able and willing to operate the remainder of the scheduled season from January through May 4 if the real estate deal closes as expected by mid-December. Turf Paradise management issued a statement via Facebook Tuesday afternoon confirming the decision. Also on Tuesday, an email message reportedly sent to Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective...

Turf Paradise in Phoenix is reportedly in the due-diligence phase of negotiations to be sold for development. Racing is expected to continue only as a placeholder for several more seasons while new uses for the 67-year-old venue go through the planning, approval and construction stages. The incoming owner of Arizona's primary commercial Thoroughbred track is expected to transition the property in pieces to "industrial and multi-family uses," according to the online media outlet Axios Phoenix, which first broke the story Apr. 12. Leroy Gessmann, the executive director of the Arizona...

Representatives of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) and the management of Turf Paradise in north Phoenix have signed an agreement that will allow for 84 days of live racing at the track beginning Jan. 1, 2020 and running through May 4, 2021. The Arizona Racing Commission was to meet in special session Oct. 30 to approve the dates after a disagreement in the wording of the agreement between the two parties led to a 24-hour delay in submitting the plan to the ARC. The Commission will also...

Turf Paradise is proposing to host a live meet next year that will run Jan. 2 through May 1, according to a letter from Turf Paradise general manager, Vince Francia, to the Arizona horsemen dated Thursday. Turf Paradise had previously announced that it had cancelled its 2020-2021 race meet due to health fears associated with operating a live meet during a global pandemic. For the proposed meet to go ahead, however, Turf Paradise management listed in the letter a number of caveats, namely that $2.1 million of disputed purse account...

Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting opened with the chairman Rory Goree asking stakeholders to "refrain from discussing anything" related to a controversial appeal over who controls purse account money that is scheduled for the October meeting. And it ended with Turf Paradise owner Jerry Simms apologizing for the frustration the state's Thoroughbred community feels over his decision not to incur liability by running a 2020-21 meet during a pandemic. In between those brief, book-ended statements that define the currently closed status of racing in Arizona, commissioners heard a slew...