By DRF.com
Stoic Luna, winner of the Golden Gate Turf Distaff on Saturday, is likely to make her next start at Santa Anita in early October. She is likely to be followed by many other runners trained by Jack Steiner.
Steiner said over the weekend that he plans to relocate his stable from Golden Gate Fields to Southern California in the near future in light of the news in recent months that Golden Gate Fields will close.
The track’s parent company, 1/ST Racing, announced on Saturday that it will request racing days for a winter-spring meeting from late December to early June, a change from a previous plan to close Golden Gate Fields in December. The winter-spring meeting at Golden Gate Fields will likely be the track’s final season.
The subject of 2024 racing dates in Northern California is scheduled to be discussed by the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting on Thursday.
Regardless of when Golden Gate Fields closes, Steiner said he has firm plans to move south, but has not selected a time frame.
“I’m making money and I’ll stay for now,” he said from Golden Gate on Sunday. “My mind is set on going down there. We’ll play it day by day.”
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Steiner, 57, said the decision to move part of his 30-horse stable is supported by prominent clients such as Larry and Marianne Williams and Melvin Simonovich, who owns Stoic Luna.
“I’m kind of looking forward to going down there,” Steiner said. “I’ve accomplished more than I thought I could on this circuit. I’d like to challenge myself and take whatever clients that would back me and get new clients.
“I know once I’m down there I can build back up again.”
Through Sunday, Steiner’s runners had won 48 races this year. He is on course to surpass a personal-best 61 wins in 2022.
1/ST Racing announced in July that Golden Gate Fields would close. At the time, the track expressed hope that Northern California-based stables would relocate to Southern California and allow Santa Anita in Arcadia, near Los Angeles, which the company also owns, to expand to a four-day racing week.
More than two months after the announcement of Golden Gate’s looming closure, Steiner is the only trainer to publicly state his intent to relocate. Instead, many are hopeful that a substitute circuit utilizing fair venues in Northern California can be formed to allow racing to continue.
A revamped calendar would take effect at the end of next summer, after the Golden Gate winter-spring meeting and fair meetings at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Ferndale.
Several proposed schedules for Northern California in 2024 have been discussed by county fair officials and executives with horsemen’s organizations. One proposal includes expanded dates at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa and Cal-Expo in Sacramento.
Cal-Expo hosts an existing nighttime harness racing meeting from late fall to early May. Harness racing officials said earlier this summer that it has a contract to operate race meetings there until 2030.
The uncertainty has left owners and trainers concerned about the continuity of racing and the overall health of the sport.
Trainer Steve Sherman said tracks from outside of California have contacted him about potentially relocating his stable, but that he plans to remain in Northern California particularly with the tentative extension at Golden Gate Fields until June.
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“That at least gives you time to think and prepare, and that’s always nice,” he said. “It’s better timing than [closing] in December. That helps out a lot. What the future is, I don’t know. Sounds like the fairs will do something.
“I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had people call me from different places to race [here]. They like Northern California because we run. We don’t train, train, train. We mostly run. I’ve had a few conversations, not anything that says I’m packing up and leaving.”
Sherman’s concern is what winter racing dates will look like as early as 2024-25, assuming Golden Gate Fields is no longer part of the calendar.
“The wintertime is where I would get a little nervous about what will happen,” Sherman said. “I don’t know how Santa Rosa is setup if we have a wet winter.
“Maybe the first year will be rough until they get it ironed out and get things done that they need to do. I’ll have to sit back and see how things go.”
The economics of simulcasting in Northern California may change in 2024.
Last week, legislation that will redirect revenue from simulcasting and account wagering in Northern California to tracks in Southern California when racing is not being held in the north sailed through the California legislature. The bill will be forwarded to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until mid-October to sign or veto the legislation.
The legislation would take effect on July 1, 2024.
If the racing board allocates dates to Northern California venues after that date, simulcast revenue originating in that part of the state will go toward purses and to tracks operating in the north, according to a government analysis of the legislation.
Earlier this year, 1/ST Racing announced plans for a $31.5 million investment in Santa Anita, largely in capital improvements, following the closure of Golden Gate Fields.
Meanwhile, an added meeting at Golden Gate Fields into June 2024 gives officials time to revamp a calendar for the northern circuit, according to prominent owner Johnny Taboada, a member of the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California. The TOC has been actively involved in race dates discussions.
“Everybody agreed that was the best solution for what is needed right now,” he said. “This gives us a little break. What’s coming is coming.
“We bought ourselves another year of racing.”
Taboada said he does not plan to extensively race in Southern California when Golden Gate Fields closes, and insists he is not alone.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of people, owners and trainers and people at the track, the main agreement is that no one wants to go,” he said. “Going to the south was never really a possibility. It’s a completely different game.”
Taboada said he is alarmed that a decline in racing days in Northern California, combined with the uncertain future of Turf Paradise in Phoenix, will cause massive disruption for racing west of the Rockies.
“Not having the north will be the end of racing in the west for lower-level horses,” he said.
Conversely, if Turf Paradise does not race, Northern California racing could see a boost in horse inventory from that circuit arrive as early as this winter, Taboada said.
“I’m hoping that creates some momentum in the next year,” he said. “The bottom line we need to have racing in the north.”