By Paulick Report
PLEASANTON, Calif. (Dec. 3, 2016) — Some Northern California horsemen are seeking new training facilities after it was announced that the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association would close for the winter beginning Dec. 26.
According to the Pleasanton Weekly, representatives from the fair association are set to meet Thursday with horsemen to discuss the closure and get feedback. The majority of the horses will be sent to Golden Gate Fields, which until this year had provided the funding needed to keep the fairgrounds open for year-round training.
Golden Gate Fields had been using the Alameda County fairgrounds as an auxiliary training facility since 2008, and had paid the fair association $7,100 per day to transport and stable horses in Pleasanton.
However, more space has become available at Golden Gate due to both a decline in horse population and an expansion of its stable area, so track officials decided that the Pleasanton facilities would no longer be needed.
“Golden Gate Fields decided they reached the end of the line as far as going into their pockets to keep Pleasanton open because it’s not only expensive, but they said, ‘We don’t need Pleasanton,’” the California Horse Racing Board’s spokesman, Mike Marten, said in an interview.
“The board agreed 1,500 stalls at Golden Gate was a sufficient number for them to hold their meets without Pleasanton.”
Read more in the Pleasanton Weekly