Pleasanton Looks Set to Close for Training and Stabling After Tuesday

[Wandering Eyes]

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 and the southern tracks), the California Authority of Racing Fairs, and the Alameda County Fair will end on that date,” wrote the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) in a Sunday advisory.

“From a regulatory standpoint, California Horse Racing Board rules will no longer be applicable to Pleasanton. Racing rules will apply for horses shipping to tracks from non-regulated facilities (i.e. Pleasanton). Importantly, Post Time workers' compensation insurance policies only cover activity at approved training facilities, meaning your policy will no longer cover activity at Pleasanton beginning March 26,” the advisory states.

According to officials, there remain as many as 340 to 350 horses stabled at the facility, leading to some last-minute decision-making among the horsemen and women still there as to what's next.

Their hopes had been tentatively raised this past week, as politicians and key industry figures pushed for Pleasanton racetrack to extend stabling and training at the facility beyond the current March 25 deadline, citing, among several concerns, the impacts to the backstretch workers there.

Long-time California owner George Schmitt and owner-breeder John Harris announced that they had devised a business plan to essentially bankroll the proposed summer meet at Pleasanton, under the banner of a newly formed company called Bernal Park Racing.

On Tuesday evening, the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association reportedly voted in closed session to indeed try to extend stabling and training there, and to possibly hold a race meet this summer.

This essentially reversed a decision earlier this year, when CARF and the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association voted to end the stabling agreement on March 25, citing wastewater discharge and financial concerns.

The timeframe, however, to thrash out the specifics of such a plan was perilously short.

In the intervening days, key entities have been unable to come to an agreement about how to bring this to fruition-a convoluted and often confusing narrative that has sharpened the tensions between industry interests in the Northern and Southern halves of the state.

The current stabling and training agreement at Pleasanton is between the Southern stabling and vanning committee, the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association and the California Association of Racing Fairs (CARF). This agreement makes Pleasanton one of the licensed auxiliary stabling centers for Santa Anita.

According to California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) executive director, Scott Chaney, a new agreement with new signatories would need to be drafted and signed for stabling and training to continue at Pleasanton after Tuesday.

According to Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) president and CEO, Bill Nader, the Southern California stabling and vanning committee “could not entertain” such an agreement with Bernal Park Racing for several reasons.

They included that Alameda County Fair and Bernal Park Racing did not have a signed license agreement; that the facility's long-standing regulatory wastewater and stormwater discharge problems had not been adequately addressed; that the TOC had not properly determined whether such an agreement was statutorily permissible; and that the CHRB has not officially recognized Bernal Park Racing as a licensed operator.

“Lastly, even if everything was in order, the business case to go forward did not make sense,” said Nader. “We have more than enough stall space [at Los Alamitos and San Luis Rey Downs] to accommodate any horse that wants to travel down,” said Nader.

Alameda County Fair CEO Jerome Hoban said his organization was prepared to enter into a license agreement with Bernal Park Racing for the entity to act as a private operator of training and stabling at Pleasanton.

For that to occur, however, Bernal Park Racing would first need assurances that the track would remain a CHRB licensed auxiliary training facility.

Reached Sunday, Schmitt voiced frustration that entities from the South of the state-including The Stronach Group (TSG) and the TOC-would not support Bernal Park Racing to continue stabling and training at Pleasanton after Tuesday, or to help devise a temporary extension until something more concrete could be determined.

“They're begging for some heavy-duty lawsuits and I'm probably going to accommodate them,” said Schmitt.

When asked about the stable staff currently living and working at Pleasanton, Hoban said that the Alameda County Fair Association was working with the city, county and local school district to ensure families with school children who wished to remain for a period of time could do so.

“We are still committed to working with the families in the RV park to assure them that they get to remain in the schools through the end of the school year,” said Hoban.

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