Northern California Report

As the summer fair racing circuit of 2007 starts to wind down, the anxiety as to what Northern California's overall racing circuit will look like starts to grow. By all indications, Bay Meadows will not race after 2008.While many horsemen held out hope that Bay Meadows would be spared of their development plans and continue to race, that scenario looks less likely each day. In fact, the Bay Meadows Land Company (BMLC) is telling the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) that they would only like to race until July of 2008. It is very disappointing that BMLC has taken this position, as they made such an issue of not originally being granted an exemption for the synthetic surface mandate. The CHRB granted the waiver, with BMLC now saying they can't race past the summer months. Go figure! The CTT is very involved in negotiations in trying to get Bay Meadows to commit to a stabling program through the fall if they do not race after July of 2008.
Charles E. Dougherty, Jr. CTT Deputy Director (01 October 2007 )