No horse racing at Alameda County Fair for 1st time in modern history
Pleasanton Golf Center in the center of the Alameda County fairgrounds racetrack.
PLEASANTON, Calif. - There will be no horse racing at the Alameda County Fair this summer – the first time in modern history.
That's because on Thursday, the California Horse Racing Board, a state agency, denied Bernal Park Racing horse racing dates from June 10 to July 6, in a 4-1 vote.
Horse racing since the 1990s
According to George Schmitt, a wealthy Bay Area horse owner who launched Bernal Park Racing, this will be the first time that there hasn't been horse racing at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton since the early 1900s, except for possibly a year or two during World War II.
And in his opinion, Schmitt said this decision will affect the fair overall.
"They will lose millions in revenue because there is no horse racing," Schmitt said in an interview on Friday. "The concessionaires will lose money, too."
Schmitt and others feel the board is "taking actions that support Southern California and taking money from Northern California."
Schmitt created Bernal Park Racing with partner John Harris, both of whom want to save horse racing in Northern California, especially after Golden Gate Fields shut down and the Alameda County Fair Association had to move out about 900 horses in March because of financial troubles.
"We're in this business to save horse racing," Schmitt told the board.
Shawn Wilson, chief of staff for Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert, attended the hearing and was disappointed in the board's vote.
"It is a very sad day for horse racing fans in Northern California when the California Horse Racing Board, whose own mission states that they are supposed to promote horse racing, opposes a financially risk-free plan that would have allowed horse racing for 10 days during the Alameda County Fair," Wilson said.
The fact that the board would end an 80-plus-year fair tradition, Wilson added, "leaves me scratching my head asking, 'Who really has the blinders on?'"
How the Alameda County Fair lost a $5 million bet to save horse racing
The Alameda County Fairgrounds is now on the hook for $5 million in losses and the fate of horse racing in Northern California is now in doubt.
Avoiding ‘disaster’
But CHRB Chairman Greg Ferraro said that he didn't think that the fledgling Bernal Park Racing could run a successful bid with just 200 horses that Schmitt and Harris own themselves.
And Ferraro said he was skeptical that another 200 or so horses would come back from Washington, Wyoming, Arizona and Southern California, where they went after the Pleasanton fairgrounds closed stables two months ago.
Ferraro said he was voting no because he wanted to avoid disaster.
"It's not that we don't wish to give you a chance," Ferraro told Schmitt. "But we don't know if the public is going to support it."
Better planning
Offering horse races in the summer at the Alameda County Fair would need "significant planning and analysis," Ferraro said at the meeting, otherwise Bernal Park Racing would likely meet the same fate as the California Authority of Racing Fairs, or CARF, which abruptly ended horse racing in January, and the Alameda County Fair Association, which is now on the hook for $5 million in losses because of financial missteps.
"I'm not opposed to Northern California racing, but it needs more planning," Ferraro said. "It's better to wait a year or two and have a successful outcome, rather than fail."
How the Alameda County Fair lost a $5 million bet to save horse racing
The Alameda County Fairgrounds is now on the hook for $5 million in losses and the fate of horse racing in Northern California is now in doubt.
‘Consolidation’ is happening
Bill Nader, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, took issue with blaming Southern California for horse racing woes in the north, telling the board that horse racing is "consolidating" in lots of places, like Singapore and Macao.
Seeing a "terrific uptick" at the racetracks at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia is "restoring the foundation in California and bringing renewed life to California racing," Nader said.
However, in California, a 2023 law, AB 1074, states that if there is no live horse racing in the north, then the betting money goes to whatever track in the south is hosting the racing, which is Santa Anita Park. Last year, Santa Anita made $20 million in what would have been Northern California betting money last year.
The law was supposed to be a compromise between Northern and Southern California racing interests, which, at the time it was written, was an effort to keep Golden Gate Fields open for six months longer.
The CHRB has traditionally assigned race dates to Santa Anita Park, Los Alamitos, and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in the south and Golden Gate Fields, the Alameda County Fair, the Sonoma County Fair, the Humboldt County Fair, the California Exposition and State Fair, and the Big Fresno Fair in the north.
When Golden Gate Fields, owned by The Stronach Group, closed in June 2024, the company said it wanted to "seamlessly transition" horse racing to its other track, Santa Anita Park.
Lone yes vote
Oscar Gonzales, vice chair of the CHRB, was the lone yes vote.
"I wanted to express my ongoing support for county fair racing in California," Gonzales told KTVU in an interview on Friday. "It's critical on a variety of fronts. It's family-oriented, and shows our rural heritage."
At the same meeting, the CHRB also did not approve racing dates for the Ferndale fair in Humboldt County, but those organizers are set to return to the board to re-ask for three weeks of racing dates in August.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, the Sonoma County Fair announced that there would be no horse racing at their summer fair, a tradition since 1936.