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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday voted down a pair of dates allocation requests for spring and summer meets at Red Bluff (Tehama District Fair) and Ferndale (Humboldt County Fair), meaning that no Thoroughbred racing is likely to occur in 2026 on the state's once-vibrant Northern circuit that has been dark since December of 2024. “As much as I'd like to see them do well, they have no chance of success,” the CHRB's chairman, Gregory Ferraro, DVM, said prior to the first of two separate votes that each went down in defeat by 4-2 margins. “There's just no market for 'em up there,” Ferraro said. “So you're going to end up destroying all of racing in California to bet on a no-chance situation in the North. “There will come a time when the North will be ready for racing. But it's not right now,” Ferraro said. Considering that the CHRB has repeatedly rebuffed attempts to revive the circuit over the past two years (meets at Ferndale, Fresno and Pleasanton were nixed in early 2025), proponents of NorCal are likely left wondering if Ferraro's “now” might be morphing into “never.” As recently as two summers ago, NorCal boasted a year-round rotation of racing anchored by one commercial track, Golden Gate Fields, and five fairs venues. That quantity of lower-class racing opportunities in the North dovetailed well with the better-quality race meets in Southern California at Santa Anita Park and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (with shorter meets at Los Alamitos Race Course filling in seasonal SoCal gaps). But an existential North-vs.-South rift was blown wide open in 2023 when The Stronach Group (TSG) announced plans to shutter Golden Gate, then the last-surviving commercial track in NorCal. TSG also owns Santa Anita, and together with Del Mar, the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT), those entities have since lobbied hard for centralizing all of the state's racing and simulcast revenues on a single circuit in the South. Together, those pro-SoCal groups have asserted that the South's racing would be “cannibalized” by what they have characterized as unrealistic, not-well-organized, and tenuously financed attempts to make a go of race meets in the North while the entire state is dealing with a rapidly thinning Thoroughbred population and no source of purse revenues other than pari-mutuel betting. NorCal interests, on the other hand, have consistently argued that they have both the horses and the financial backing to pull off successful small meets, and breeders, owners and trainers based in that region remain firm in their belief that it's a mistake to concentrate the entirety of the state's racing in one urban area in the South. The North's proponents have also articulated complaints that the TOC and CTT aren't representing their interests, and that the CHRB isn't extending support to smaller-scale racing outfits that haven't been able to compete at Santa Anita or Del Mar. They also claim that if NorCal slides off the grid, so too will the state's alarmingly diminishing foal crop, because the North is where the bulk of the breeding farms are. The CHRB, meanwhile, is caught in the middle, and its board members seem collectively mindful that they made a mistake by greenlighting a risky venture by an entity called Golden State Racing that failed to conduct a financially viable extended NorCal meet at Pleasanton in the autumn of 2024. In fact, in April 2025, Ferraro described that Golden State Racing decision by the CHRB as “unwise at best or disastrous at worst.” In direct opposition to Ferraro, the CHRB's vice-chair, Oscar Gonzales, has been a staunch, outspoken supporter of keeping racing alive in the North over the course of the last several years, and he has consistently advocated for and backed every proposal aimed at propping up the North since TSG pulled the plug on Golden Gate, which last had racing in June 2024. Prior to the votes on Thursday, Gonzales zeroed in on California's “foal crop that is nosediving,” which he pegged at “right around 800” and said is “just going to keep going down” if the CHRB didn't do something to revive racing in NorCal. “The breeding that goes on in California is primarily in the North,” Gonzales said. “And what I have heard loud and clear from the breeders is that they're literally getting out because there is nowhere for them to kind of spread their investment across the table. “So I find it very interesting that trainers would be very much in favor [of a single circuit in the South], especially when we just don't know what the future is for Santa Anita or TSG,” Gonzales said. “We see what [TSG has] done in Maryland [where TSG is exiting the Thoroughbred industry by turning over control of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park to the state]. We see what they're doing in Florida [where TSG is pushing for legislatively “decoupling” live racing at Gulfstream Park from its casino there]. But we're willing to put all of our chips [in the South] rather than spreading them out?” Gonzales asked rhetorically. Instead, Gonzales suggested, the CHRB should be “keeping some presence in the North, even if it's just [fairs meets in the] summer, [because that's all] the breeders want.” Gonzales continued: “We know the Cal-bred program is going down, and a big reason they're going down is because there's no place for them to train or race. I don't understand [and] I just don't really see a strategy here by completely eliminating Northern California racing. Because when you do that, you're eliminating breeding. And if you're eliminating breeding, guess what? You're eliminating the Cal-bred program eventually… “By having these little fairs, you're sending a message to the breeding community in Northern California [that] they matter, and that there's going to be a place for them to compete,” Gonzales said. “After today's meeting, if, in fact, we do not approve of these fairs, these breeders are going to be really sending their broodmares out [of state], and we will start to see a foal crop down in the 600 to 700 [range], which we might as well just throw in the towel at that point,” Gonzales said. Ferraro was quick to respond to that last point by Gonzales, interjecting that, “I hate to be argumentative, but the way to improve breeding for California-breds is to breed better horses, not breed horses for the fairs.” Thursday's meeting had been specially added to the CHRB's calendar after the board, at its January meeting, had tabled a proposal for 19 weeks of fairs racing at three different tracks (Pleasanton, AKA Alameda County Fair, which asked for dates last month, did not come back with a new proposal along with Red Bluff and Ferndale). Red Bluff proposed an Apr. 29 to May 26 meet. Ferndale wanted dates from Aug. 5 to Sept. 1. A CHRB staff analysis that was prepared for the Feb. 26 meeting indicated that there were several outstanding financial, bureaucratic and logistical questions about the proposed race meets that needed to be rectified under a tight timeline, particularly for Red Bluff, which has not hosted a CHRB-licensed meet in some four decades. A CHRB safety steward visited the bare-bones remains of Red Bluff's former half-mile oval Jan. 23 and noted that there were “a large number of updates/improvements that need to be made to the track before it can pass an inspection.” Ferndale last raced in the summer of 2024. “At least with Tehama, I think in no way, shape or form are they ready to start a race meet and be successful at it,” Ferraro said. Commissioner Dennis Alfieri said it was his opinion that the SoCal statewide consolidation plan is still in its formative stages, and thus shouldn't be tinkered with by diverting simulcast revenues and horses to the North. “We're finally doing so well in the South,” Alfieri said (with Gonzales openly scoffing at that statement). “But it's fragile, right? It can break like an egg. And so I am still not convinced that granting race dates [in the North] is appropriate or smart. My belief [is] it's not the time to experiment, [and] this is high-risk.” Commissioner Brenda Washington Davis said she saw both sides of the issue, and asked other board members to consider that giving the North some leeway with regard to racing might help get NorCal stakeholders on board to help lobby for new forms of gaming revenue that could be legalized to subsidize purses statewide. “I understand the impetus for consolidating and not dragging everybody down by compromising purse sizes and field sizes,” Washington Davis said. “[But] I think every time the Southern California circuit takes a position that they don't want the North racing, [that] puts us farther from that Northern element that could help with getting [purse subsidies legalized]. “And frankly, in my concern, it's fragile in the South because we don't have the subsidy. And I think the South would go down anyway at some point, the way things are heading,” Washington Davis said. “So it would just make more sense to me, instead of hounding on the fact that [race dates, horse population and simulcasting revenues are] a zero-sum game, to say, 'Let's give the North something,' and put that pressure on ourselves to work harder and get [gaming legalization] that you all know we're going to have to have to keep racing healthy in California.” Voting “no” for both versions of the NorCal meets (and the simulcast privileges that would have gone with the dates) were Ferraro, plus commissioners Alfieri, Damascus Castellanos and Peter Stern. Voting “yes” to advance the NorCal meets were Gonzales and Washington Davis. Commissioner Thomas Hudnut was not at the meeting. The post CHRB Again Votes down Attempts to Revive NorCal Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Withadream2 · Posted
Looking at this again, the problem has really come about because most of the horses around the R70 grade are in Southland this weekend. Perhaps TLZ & Jumal should have gone there if they really wanted to start this weekend and leave the their Addington race as a up to 60 rating. -
By Spatchcock · Posted
Big hoopla over The Laz Effect and Jumal this week but the same thing happened last week at Auckland when a Miracle Mile placegetter and New Zealand Cup placegetter were in the same field as a rating 50. It happens every week in the north - fields selected from top down and the middle grade gets cannibalised and the horses sold, rinse and repeat. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Kingsclere Stables have an exciting week ahead of them, with promising mare She’s A Dealer shooting for black-type at Trentham on Sunday, while six days later the Cambridge barn will hold a strong hand in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m). Trainer Roger James had five New Zealand Derby wins to his name before Robert Wellwood joined him in partnership eight years ago, and a win in the race was high on his list. Wellwood achieved that goal two years ago with Orchestral, and the stable is favoured to repeat the feat with another filly in this year’s HKJC World Pool-sponsored Classic. Their exciting filly Autumn Glory currently heads the market following her runner-up performance in the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) last Saturday behind Ohope Wins, with Yulong Investments electing to bypass the Derby in favour of Australian targets with the victor. The burgeoning thoroughbred giant has decided to remain in New Zealand with their other recent purchase, Autumn Glory, with the daughter of Ocean Park seeking to add an elite-level crown to her Group Two heroics in the Waikato Guineas (2000m) two starts back. Wellwood has been pleased with the way she has come through her Oaks run and said she ticks a lot of boxes heading into next week’s Derby. “We have now seen two things,” he said. “In the Waikato Guineas she beat the boys and secondly in the Oaks she showed she can definitely see a mile-and-a-half out. “She has ticked a few boxes that probably most haven’t in the race, and she has come through the Oaks in superb order.” Stablemate Road To Paris has also impressed, having finished runner-up in his last two outings, including in the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m) last weekend, and TAB bookmakers have installed him a $4.20 equal second favourite for the Derby alongside Avondale Guineas winner That’s Gold. While he has shown plenty of talent on the track, Wellwood said the son of Circus Maximus still has plenty to learn. “Road To Paris ran second in the Avondale Guineas doing things completely wrong,” he said. “He is a very high-class horse, we have always thought a lot of the horse, but he has really got to learn to do things the right way around to be winning it.” Ariadne will round out the stable’s Derby representation, with her handlers electing to back her up in the Derby following her pleasing fourth placed result in the Oaks. “She is a horse we now know goes the mile-and-a-half,” Wellwood said. “She had a bit of interference at the top of the straight in the Oaks, had she not had that perhaps she would have run a place. I would love to see an uninterrupted run for her. She certainly wouldn’t be out of it.” The stable is also looking forward to contesting the Gr.3 Haunui Farm King’s Plate (1200m) with Sweynesday. The five-year-old gelding has been a model of consistency, winning five and placing in four of his nine starts to date, including running third in last month’s Gr.1 Railway (1200m), his first tilt at stakes level. “Masa (Hashizume, jockey) rode him in a bit of work (on Thursday morning) and it was probably as good as I have seen him work,” Wellwood said. “He is in terrific order and I am very happy with him.” While looking forward to Champions Day, the stable’s immediate attention is racing this weekend, with She’s A Dealer seeking to breakthrough for an elusive stakes win in the Gr.3 Rydges Wellington Cuddle Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on Sunday. The daughter of Ace High has finished fourth in the Gr.2 Rich Hill Mile (1600m) and Gr.3 Aotearoa Classic (1600m) in her last two starts, and Wellwood is confident she will be able to attain black-type against her own sex this weekend. “We are really happy with her,” he said. “We were keen to see her go 2000m, but the Kaimai Stakes (Listed) was run on a very wet track, so we are back against mares only here. “A big mile at Wellington I think will suit and it would be great to see her get through to win her first black-type race.” View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Gary and Mary West's Sticker Shock (Uncle Mo–Smokey's Love, by Forestry) made it two-for-two going a route of ground when winning at Oaklawn Thursday afternoon. Allowed to settle in a two-wide third as Copper Wind (Gun Runner) led the way through a :23.49 quarter, the 3-2 favorite, who was getting-first-time Lasix here, took closer order as the pacesetter kept up the tempo through a half-mile in :47.62. Starting to put the pressure on the leader as the round the far turn, the West homebred held a narrow advantage straightening for home, and despite the best intention of 5-2 chance Scot's Law (Tiz the Law) to her outside, the Brad Cox trainee held tough to score by a length. Spitfire (McKinzie) was third. The winner is a half to Love Tap (Aus) (Tapit), GSW-Aus, $414,859; and to Fighting Mad (New Year's Day), GISW, $472,008. Smokey Love most recently produced a colt by Tapit in 2025. Third as the favorite in her career debut going seven panels at Keeneland in October, Sticker Shock appreciated the added yardage when going wire-to-wire in an 8 1/2-furlong test at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29. 8th-Oaklawn, $125,000, Alw (NW1$X)/Opt. Clm ($150,000), 2-26, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.24, ft, 1 length. STICKER SHOCK (f, 3, Uncle Mo–Smokey's Love, by Forestry) Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-1, $154,613. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV. O-Gary and Mary West; B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. The post Uncle Mo’s Sticker Shock Collects Second Straight with Oaklawn Score appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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