Golden Gate Fields Sues Anti-Racing Protesters

Golden Gate Fields has filed a lawsuit against Direct Action Everywhere, the anti-racing group whose members disrupted racing at the Northern California track March 4 by laying on the track surface before its races were set to begin.

The suit, filed March 9 in Alameda County Superior Court and first reported by The Mercury News, seeks to prevent members of the activist group from trespassing at the track and asks for damages from loss of revenue and goodwill. The protest, in which four individuals laid on the track and locked arms strengthened by PVC pipe, resulted in the cancellation of the day's first race and delayed six other races by more than six hours.

The protest was live-streamed on social media by Direct Action Everywhere, which also had representatives outside the gates of the track carrying signs in opposition to racing. A representative of the group said on the live stream that the action was in response to a high number of fatalities at the track.

Six horses, one of them a pony, have died at Golden Gate this year, according to California Horse Racing Board statistics. Four of those fatalities occurred after training, two from "other" causes, which can include barn accidents and from ailments such as colic.

Last year, Golden Gate had 27 fatalities, second highest in the state behind Los Alamitos Race Course in Southern California. Nineteen of its 2020 fatalities were related to training or racing, according to CHRB statistics.

Smoke flares were also ignited at the scene of the March 4 protest. During the protest's most chaotic hours, the suit alleges 200 COVID-19 vaccine appointments scheduled at a clinic at the track were canceled.

The four protesters, identified and listed as defendants in the lawsuit as Rachel Christina Ziegler, Rocky Ning Fan Chau, Omar Enrique Aicardi, and James Nicholas Crom, were later criminally charged, according to the suit.

The lawsuit states the defendants' "misconduct also risked the health of the horses" and suggests Direct Action Everywhere is "planning, and will continue, to engage in similar unlawful actions in the future until defendants achieve their stated goal of shutting down the horse racing business." 

In addition to damages, the suit, filed by the firm of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, seeks injunction relief to prevent Direct Action Everywhere from trespassing. The suit has been assigned to Judge James Reilly in Alameda County Superior Court.

In the days the legal action was filed, Direct Action Everywhere has continued to circulate a petition calling for the end of racing at Golden Gate. In a March 18 tweet, they claim the suit is a means to try to "silence us but we won't stop fighting until Golden Gate Fields is shut down and the horses are safe."