Leroy Gessmann

Racing is set to resume at Turf Paradise in suburban Phoenix in late January 2024, according to a post on X from the track which displays a message from the Arizona HBPA bulletin board. The message read: "There was an emergency HBPA meeting tonight. A race meet will take place. Race dates are Jan. 29 through May 4. Horsemen can arrive in their stalls Dec. 18 with the track opening for training on the 26th. All is based on the approval of the commission. Stall applications will go out asap...

Leroy Gessmann, who served as president of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) from 2015 to 2021 and currently works as the Arizona HBPA's executive director, told commissioners at the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting Thursday that regardless of the decision gets handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, both the HBPA and its opponents in a 2 1/2-year-old lawsuit to nullify the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) agree that the nation's highest court will eventually have to be called upon...

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...

Turf Paradise got unanimous 3-0 approval from the Arizona Racing Commission on Thursday to open its backstretch by the end of the month in anticipation of an 84-date, Jan. 4-May 1 racing season. The meet will mark the first Thoroughbred racing in Arizona since Mar. 14, when Turf Paradise ended its spring season prematurely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, Turf Paradise withdrew its dates request for a traditional 2020-21 autumn-to-spring meet, citing liability concerns related to COVID-19. In between, the Arizona Downs summer meet never ran because local...