By Bloodhorse.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (May 21, 2015) — While pushing a conflict regarding fall racing dates in contention between Santa Anita Park and Los Alamitos Race Course down the line, the California Horse Racing Board still touched on the issues facing the track in northwest Orange County at their monthly meeting May 21 at Santa Anita.
Discussion on Sept. 26-27 race dates, which both Santa Anita and Los Alamitos want, was tabled for the second monthly meeting in a row, and will be back on the CHRB agenda for their scheduled June 25 meeting at Los Alamitos. In a discussion about the approval of Los Alamitos’ eight-date meet from July 2 to July 12, however, talk focused on the challenges of the dates sitting between Santa Anita’s spring meeting and Del Mar’s much-anticipated summer meet.
“We were disappointed last year, particularly with our on-track business,” Brad McKinzie, the general manager of Los Alamitos’ Thoroughbred racing, said of the track’s first Thoroughbred-only meet since expanding its dirt course to a mile. “There’s no question about it. It is a frustrating process, to try to build this market with the hand we’ve been dealt.”
Although Los Alamitos has adjusted its purses to last year’s numbers, CHRB member Madeline Auerbach questioned the $350,000 purse of the July 4 Los Alamitos Derby (gr. II), which Shared Belief won last year, when the race had a purse of $500,000.
“Not trying to second-guess, but $350,000 seems generous,” Auerbach said. “My question is, do you think you could have attracted the same horses for $250,000?”
“I don’t, and I think it would have affected our graded status,” McKinzie said. “We’re hoping to make that race a grade I. Shared Belief last year was one step forward to grade I status. It is highly-competitive for these types of horses and this race is the centerpiece (of our meet).”
McKinzie went on to explain the meet’s unique positioning between Santa Anita and Del Mar, and the importance of Los Alamitos capturing attention on a national level during the opening weekend.
“We need a race,” McKinzie said. “We’ve been out of sight for six months… I don’t have the luxury of getting into a meet and letting it build. If we don’t get their attention the first week, we’re done. We need a race that not only locally, but nationally, let’s people know Los Alamitos is back.
“With an eight-day meet between Santa Anita and Del Mar, if you just run races, you’re going to be bypassed… It’s opening week or bust.”
With the state still adjusting to the aftermath of Hollywood Park’s closure, Los Alamitos not only provides much-needed stable space, but essentially stop-gap racing dates between Southern California’s most-recognizable venues.
“A two-week meet is tough, and where this meet is placed makes it doubly-tough,” McKinzie said. “The one aspect that we were thrilled about last year, and I hope it continues this year, is the support we’ve received from the owners and trainers running horses at our meet… We were scared to death, being between Santa Anita and Del Mar, that we’d be completely bypassed. It’s hard to build customer loyalty and a fan base with eight days of racing, but that’s the hand we were dealt.”
After his comments to the board, McKinzie said Los Alamitos wouldn’t be interested in any more than three consecutive weeks of racing per meet, pointing to the track’s lack of a turf course as the main reason an extended schedule wouldn’t be viable.
But the issue over the September dates still lingers, and the CHRB drew criticism from Alan Balch, the executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, for pushing back discussion on the topic for a second meeting in a row. Balch connected the dispute over the dates to potential stabling problems at Del Mar, which he called the “elephant in the room.”
“The board has decided to defer the apparent disagreement between Los Alamitos and Santa Anita, as to the opening weekend dates of Santa Anita’s fall meet,” Balch said. “But the board needs to understand that this impacts a great many other things, including the stabling capacity for Del Mar, and including the ability to project purses and stakes all the way to the fall. These things, we believe, need to be confronted sooner, rather than later.
“There’s too much uncertainty and the horsemen, trainers in particular, cannot plan with confidence if they don’t know where they’re going to be stabled less than 60 days from today… We’re worried that there is a leverage going on here, in the negotiations between Santa Anita and Los Alamitos, that results in the horsemen being held hostage.”
Balch then called for the CHRB to mediate negotiations between Los Alamitos and Santa Anita, which CHRB chairman Chuck Winner said is already ongoing.
The CHRB approved the upcoming race dates for the Los Alamitos and Del Mar summer sessions, as well as Northern California fair dates in Sacramento and Santa Rosa. It also approved an amendment that makes any horse ineligible to race in California if it is on the veterinarian’s list in another racing jurisdiction, and another that adjusted the non-winning jockey riding fee to be in line with the state’s most recent minimum wage increase.
CHRB executive director Rick Baedeker also announced future committee discussions on whip use.
“The Jockey and Driver Welfare Committee, chaired by commissioner Alex Solis, (will) consider further changes to the construction of the whip, as well as other modifications of the whip rule, including a very new idea, of the potential of optional whip-free races,” Baedeker said.
He made sure to emphasize, however, that these are discussion topics only.
“Keep in mind… so nobody gets too riled up, these are for discussion purposes,” Baedeker said. “The committee then decides, as a matter of fact, if it wants to move anything forward to the full board.”
Read more on BloodHorse.com: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/92105/chrb-discusses-los-al-at-monthly-meeting#ixzz3aqanPf6D