California Regulator Approves Southern California Dates

The 2019-20 winter-spring meet at Santa Anita Park will include three weeks of downtime—12 race days to be determined based on factors like horse population and weather—under a plan approved Aug. 22 by the California Horse Racing Board at its regular meeting in Del Mar.

The board unanimously approved the Southern California race dates despite concerns raised by representatives of Los Alamitos Race Course and California Thoroughbred Trainers that they were not included in talks that helped shape the Southern California racing schedule for 2020. The plan was put forward Thursday by Thoroughbred Owners of California, Santa Anita Park, and Del Mar.

As usual, Santa Anita will open its winter-spring meeting Dec. 26 and continue through June 23.

CHRB vice chairman Madeline Auerbach noted the three weeks off would give horses and workers time to recharge, and by not assigning the dates of that break, the time off could be assigned at an ideal time once factors like weather forecasts and horse population numbers are available. Any plan for the time off would be approved by the CHRB.

Santa Anita was also approved for 25 race dates between Sept. 9-Oct. 27. Del Mar was approved for 36 race dates from July 18-Sept. 8 and 15 dates in the fall from Oct. 28-Dec. 1. Los Alamitos is approved for six dates June 24-July 7, with half of those dates being Los Angeles County Fair Dates. The LACF was approved for eight dates at Los Alamitos from Dec. 2-15.

CTT executive director Alan Balch said his organization was left out of race date discussions, as did Los Alamitos owner Ed Allred and executive Jack Liebau. The three asked the CHRB to table the proposal until more discussion could be conducted, perhaps through a CHRB committee meeting, but the board approved the dates.

Auerbach noted CTT was invited to an initial meeting but declined to attend. She said at that meeting, she and commissioner Fredric Maas asked the industry stakeholders to come up with a schedule and present it to the full board. That assignment, all parties seemed to agree, was largely carried out by Del Mar, Santa Anita, and TOC.

Representatives of CTT and Los Alamitos said they were not included in those shareholder meetings.

Allred raised concerns that adding some dark dates during the Santa Anita winter-spring meet could negatively affect night racing of Quarter Horses and Standardbreds. In a letter to the board, Balch suggested working on the dates for racing in Northern and Southern California at the same time, noting it could provide an opportunity to add more race days at Los Alamitos, which doesn't have a turf course, at a time that Golden Gate Fields could offer more turf racing.

The board also approved Thursday:

• Minor changes from the Office of Administrative Law to updated rules that will allow the CHRB to immediately suspend the license of a racetrack to conduct a race meeting. Previously, the board was required to first conduct a meeting, which required 10 days' notice, effectively delaying when the regulator could take action.
• A rule that will require a horse who receives an intra-articular injection to be placed on the vet's list. And such a horse will have to wait 120 hours before a workout, which is up from 72 hours.
• New standards for tracks (the Golden Gate Fields fall meet, Fresno, and Santa Anita Park fall meet) that will reduce maximum Lasix dosage from 10 cc to 5 cc and require at least a 14-day stand-down after a horse receives an intra-articular injection.