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The dream Pleasanton residents had for year-round horse racing at the Alameda County Fairgrounds lasted all of 26 days of races before disappearing almost as quickly as it got here.
It started earlier this year — 2024 — when Golden Gate Fields finally made good on its repeated threats about closing the track for good, this time according to the plan, to consolidate racing in Southern California.
Northern California horsemen, the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) and the Alameda County Fair banded together, came up with a plan and made a push to be awarded the racing dates from Golden Gate Fields and begin to rebuild Northern California.
Initially in March when the California Horse Racing Board voted 6-0 to award the racing dates for Golden State Racing for a 26-day meet at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, there was a lot of happiness, enthusiasm, and hope.
What started with awarding the dates in March was vanquished before the end of the year.
Hopes and dreams turned to failure and people’s lives shattered within eight months. And the worst part: It was well on its way to be doomed before the first race was run in October.
At the heart of the issue was the unwillingness of groups with connections to Southern California — the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) to name the biggest perpetrator — put the new Golden State Racing (GSR) organization so far in the hole, they were swimming in quicksand.
The purse structure forced upon GSR by the TOC before they signed an agreement was damming.
The CHRB needs to take a deep look at the TOC in the southern half of the state, making notice of their continual subversive actions that are a detriment to horse racing.
The TOC, an organization that is supposed to represent the entire state, has always chosen to pursue what was best for SoCal instead of working toward a deal that would help the entire state.
Such has been the case for the TOC for as far back as I can remember. There are some very strong owners in the north that love the sport and were doing everything they could to save the North — George Schmitt and John Harris to name a couple.
But they were forced to swim upstream, facing a SoCal group that were determined to prevent NorCal from having a chance to succeed.
By December, GSR was out of money and nothing positive was coming out of the current situation, so the decision was made to pull their application for the spring meet that was set to start Dec. 26 and run up to the Alameda County Fair’s summer circuit.
They were not able to continually hemorrhage money with little to no help from other horse racing entities.
As of right now, Pleasanton is still a training track, with a commitment for now from Santa Anita to pay for vanning expenses for NorCal horses to make the trip down to Santa Anita to run in lower purse races than have recently been created.
Through one weekend, Santa Anita is following its plan, but I think people in the northern half of the state are looking at it as not if, but when, Santa Anita shuts out Northern California from horse racing.
The exciting and successful Summer Fair circuit run at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale and Fresno still is scheduled to run in 2025 and I believe will in fact make it through this summer.
Unfortunately, it might be the last horse racing we see in NorCal.
Amador boys’ basketball
The Dons went 2-1 to start the Modesto Catholic Holiday tournament the week of Christmas.
The tournament started with a 66-61 loss to Bullard. Cade Krueger had 24 for Amador Valley, with Jaylen Smith and Kasen Krueger adding 14 each.
In game, Amador evened their record in the tournament with a 55-40 win over Manteca. Kasen Krueger and Smith had 13, with Chad Krueger getting 12 points.
Game three saw the Dons knock off Edison 67-51. Chad Krueger had 18 points, with Kasen Krueger adding 16. Smith had 13 points, with Dante Ventura rounding out the double-digit scorers with 11 points.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
EBRPD defunds multiple Tri-Valley projects amid split vote on annual budgetDecember 31, 2025 6:52 am
Horse racing is nothing but animal abuse and needs to be a part of history. Who really enjoys watching drugged horses beat on for entertainment. Good riddens!