Arizona Racing | Horse Racing Free Tips

Trouble In (Turf) Paradise: Sale Again Called Off, ’24 Meet Still Planned

For the second time in four months, a reported sale of Turf Paradise has been called off.

The track's current owner, Jerry Simms, broke the news at Friday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting without disclosing details or being pressed by regulators to provide any additional information.

Preparations for a planned Jan. 29-May 4 race meet are still underway, though, according to testimony from track officials, commission employees, and representatives of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA).

The revelation that the deal was a no-go didn't seem to come as a shock to commissioners or stakeholders.

Specifics of the transaction had been shrouded in mystery and tinged with dysfunction since the outset.

At AZRC meetings in recent months, horsemen had expressed skepticism, frustration and even derision over whether Simms was working in good faith to make the sale. They had also alleged they were being kept out of the loop on key details about the future of the state's lone remaining commercial Thoroughbred track.

Simms had repeatedly denied those accusations. But it's no secret that Simms and Arizona horsemen have had an acrimonious business relationship for the better part of two decades.

Perhaps what was most bizarre about the Jan. 12 no-sale disclosure was the non-reaction from almost everyone else.

No commissioners asked Simms to elaborate on the failed deal, and when AZHBPA representatives were given their turn at the microphone to comment, they chose not to utter anything about the called-off sale. Instead they waxed glowingly about how well work for the coming race meet was progressing under Simms's stewardship.

The dialogue unfolded like this:

Friday's meeting had progressed about 35 minutes without any mention of the proposed sale, which was unusual considering the deal had previously been a focal point of discussion.

Back on Dec. 5, the AZRC had conditionally approved the '24 meet for Turf Paradise, which was to be conducted by Simms as he attempted to close on a sale of the 213-acre property to an entity known as Turf Paradise Land Trust.

On Friday, Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia was winding up comments about the work being completed in preparation for the meet when commissioner Linda York interjected to ask about an update on the sale, which Francia had not mentioned.

“Mr. Simms would be the one to provide an update to the commission,” Francia deferred, claiming that he didn't know if Simms was remotely listening in to the meeting to be able to comment. He offered to pass along a message to Simms, though.

A few moments later, Simms chimed in, claiming phone difficulties had at first prevented him from speaking.

Simms then took a few minutes to rail about an old feud over off-track-betting (OTB) with the now-defunct Arizona Downs, during which AZRC chairman Chuck Coolidge stepped in, asking him to stick to the current topic.

Simms continued his rant for a bit longer, then switched subjects.

“Commissioner York, right now, regarding your question about a sale? Right now there is no sale under contract. There is no deal. The deal was there before. The people never put up their money, and it just didn't happen.”

No commissioners asked why, what transpired, or what the falling-through of the deal meant for the future of Turf Paradise.

Instead, after a pause of several seconds chairman Coolidge just moved on to the next agenda item like nothing significant had just occurred.

Soon after, J. Lloyd Yother, the president of the AZHBPA, declined an opportunity to offer any sort of report when called upon to speak.

Yother deferred his time at the microphone to Leroy Gessmann, the AZHBPA's executive director, who said the Turf Paradise projects “are going slow, but they are moving forward….The racetrack, in the nine years that I've been here, is the best condition it's ever been in. For the first time in nine years, it was done properly [and] I want to thank Turf Paradise for getting a safe racetrack.”

Only later, during the public commentary portion of the meeting, did anyone briefly address the fall-through of the sale.

“That track is really not for sale,” said Stephen Nolan, a frequent critic of both Simms and the AZRC. “It's an illusion. A delusion that [Simms] is trying to portray. He won. He got his OTBs. He collects that money. He puts nothing back into the industry. That's obvious [by the condition of the property]. We need [the commission] to be proactive.”

In recent years, disagreements between the Arizona racing community and Simms have roiled in the courts and at AZRC meetings. Prolonged fights over OTB privileges, simulcast signals, and how the horsemen's purse money can be used have all been topics of heated debate.

Turf Paradise ended its most recent season in May 2023 with a different buyer doing due diligence to purchase the property. At the time, Simms said he wanted to retire to spend more time with his grandchildren.

On Aug. 1, Simms announced Turf Paradise wouldn't be opening in November as scheduled for its traditional six-month meet.

On Sept. 18, the months-long purported sale with the first buyer was publicly declared dead.

Ten days later, Simms announced a new buyer had suddenly emerged.

The AZRC met on Sept. 28 and Oct. 12 without anyone from the new prospective buying group coming forward to speak.

But during the Nov. 9 meeting, Simms introduced a representative from Turf Paradise Land Trust while claiming the two parties were at the escrow stage of a deal. AZRC staffers indicated that a vetting process to license the new ownership group was underway, but noted that process could take months to complete.

Despite their stated misgivings about Simms and the sale, on Nov. 10 the AZHBPA board of directors voted to extend required interstate simulcasting permissions so Turf Paradise's 37 off-track betting parlors wouldn't go dark and could instead keep generating revenue for purses at the upcoming meet.

During the Dec. 5 AZRC meeting at which Turf Paradise was green-lighted for racing in '24, Simms said the sale had hit snags, but he did not elaborate on them or indicate the deal was in jeopardy.

Now fast-forward to the Jan. 12 meeting. During the tail end of the public commentary session, Simms asked for and was granted a second turn to speak.

But instead of clarifying aspects about the future of Turf Paradise, Simms only made the overall situation more cryptic by underscoring that he wanted to move on from running the racetrack.

“You know, when I get a permit to run a track for three years, it doesn't mean I have to run three years if I want to retire,” Simms said. “If a doctor gets a license to practice medicine for five years, and after three years he wants to retire, he doesn't have to practice the entire five years…

“I want this industry to flourish. But I want to retire. And I'm allowed to retire. I feel badly for trainers that need a place to run. But at a certain age, I want to retire,” Simms said.

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Turf Paradise Approved to Run ’24 Meet, Pending Sign-off by HISA Authority

Turf Paradise received unanimous but conditional approval from the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) on Tuesday to conduct a Jan. 29-May 4 race meet.

The upcoming season, however, won't be run under the auspices of the new ownership group that has been reportedly trying to buy the Phoenix track for the last two months.

Instead, Turf Paradise's current owner, Jerry Simms, will still be at the helm.

Simms and Arizona horsemen have had an acrimonious business relationship for the better part of two decades.

But Simms vowed during the Dec. 5 “emergency” AZRC meeting that he will be sticking around for at least the next five months because his deal to sell the track to an entity known as Turf Paradise Land Trust has hit unspecified snags.

The conditions attached to the licensure by the AZRC have to do with Turf Paradise either complying with or getting the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority to waive its requirement that stipulates a 90-day advance notice from any track before the start of racing. In addition, the Authority still has to accredit Turf Paradise in terms of safety standards.

Rudy Casillas, the deputy director of the AZRC's racing division, said that although Simms is still free to try to close on the sale of the track (which has been under consideration by at least two different buyers this year), he explained that it would be “highly unlikely” that the commission would be able to finalize its vetting process of a new licensee before the planned end of the race meet.

“We have not received all of the required information from the potential new buyer as of yet, so I don't believe that there's going to be that type of [due diligence] complication impacting live race meet going forward,” Casillas said.

As for the HISA hurdles, Casillas added, “I cannot speak for HISA. I can't predict what they'll do, if they waive the 90 days. We're hoping that they will…. If they don't waive the 90-day advance notice, then obviously the race meet will have to start at a later time, beyond Jan. 29.”

But Casillas did add that AZRC representatives are speaking with HISA Authority executives who are in the state this week for the Global Symposium on Racing hosted by the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program in Tucson. Casillas said that in those conversations, “HISA has indicated that they will definitely try to work with the [AZRC] and move this forward.”

Unlike at recent AZRC meetings where their representatives spoke at length about the confusion and chaos of trying to get the sport back on track in Arizona, no one from the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) testified during Tuesday's meeting.

Simms, however, gave his side of the story, portraying himself as a savior, of sorts.

“I decided to run this meet because it was just too much impact on the stakeholders, too many people's lives being disrupted,” Simms said. “And I was hoping that my deal would have moved ahead, but it's not gone ahead. So I put my retirement on the back burner and decided to do it…

“We're complying with HISA. We hope to have HISA out this week [and] hopefully they won't hold us to that 90-day period of time,” Simms said.

“HISA has their own criteria. And so hopefully they'll give us their approval. I [don't have] any control over that. But I will tell you, with absolute certainty, if this meet is approved and we run the meet, it will finish. Even if the track is sold, whoever buys it will have to finish it or I will finish it.”

Back on Nov. 9, Simms told the AZRC that the ownership group that wants to buy the currently closed Turf Paradise was at the escrow stage of closing on the sale.

Turf Paradise ended its racing season back in May with a different buyer doing due diligence to purchase the property. Then on Aug. 1, Simms announced Turf Paradise wouldn't be opening in November as scheduled for its traditional six-month meet.

On Sept. 18, the months-long purported sale with the first buyer was publicly declared dead.

Then 10 days later, Simms announced a new buyer had suddenly emerged with a desire to purchase the 213-acre property and save racing at the 67-year-old track.

In recent years, disagreements between the Arizona racing community and Simms have roiled in the courts and at racing commission meetings. An extraordinarily long pandemic closure and prolonged fights over off-track betting privileges, simulcast signals, and how the horsemen's purse money can be used have all been topics of heated debate.

Turf Paradise has also been plagued by safety issues in recent seasons, and as recently as the Oct. 12 commission meeting, Simms and AZHBPA officers sparred over whether or not extensive repairs were needed for the main track rail.

But reports made at a subsequent commission meeting Nov. 9 did note progress to the facility's upkeep, such as the turf course well pump being fixed and the grass getting much-needed watering, seeding and fertilizations.

A release posted on social media by Turf Paradise after the commission's vote noted that the track and AZHBPA have signed a contract that calls for Monday-Thursday racing. Horses will be allowed into the stables Dec. 18, with training to start Dec. 26.

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AZHBPA: ‘No Earthly Idea When And If A Meet Will Be Performed At Turf Paradise’

The ownership group that wants to buy the currently closed Turf Paradise is reportedly at the escrow stage of closing on the sale, but a projected Jan. 13 opening day was met with skepticism when the prospective majority buyer was pressed to name a start date at Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting.

“At this point where we're at, and not having the complete [new ownership] application, there may be a delay from January moving forward,” said Rudy Casillas, the deputy director of the AZRC's racing division, told commissioners after brief comments by Richard Moore, the chief executive officer for potential buyer Turf Paradise Land Trust.

Casillas cited both the commission's own lengthy approval process for a new track licensee and what he said was a federal requirement imposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) that stipulates “a 90-day advance notice from any track before their implementation of racing.”

“Racing may not start until February or March depending on how things go with the vetting and background investigation,” Casillas said.

Lloyd Yother, the president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA), expressed a feeling of being left out of the loop on the status of what might happen at the last remaining commercially active track on a circuit that hasn't hosted Thoroughbred racing for six months.

“We're still in our state of confusion in how things are going down and what's transpiring, what's taking place,” Yother said. “There's so many moving targets [and] we still are at the mercy and going through our normal frustrations with how things are to come about…. We have no earthly idea when and if a meet will be performed at Turf Paradise.”

Despite that sense of helplessness, the AZHBPA does have one important cudgel of control within its grasp: Its board of directors will be meeting Friday to vote on whether to extend the required interstate simulcasting permissions beyond Nov. 12 so Turf Paradise's 37 off-track betting parlors won't go dark.

Yother said that meeting will determine “whether or not to terminate our signal [permission] or move it forward to [Dec. 31] giving the opportunity for all parties to get their act together and make this happen.”

The vote will likely come down to weighing the benefits of keeping the OTBs open (which would allow the new Turf Paradise owner to build up revenue for the purse account) versus closing them (which would make it clear that the AZHBPA has had it with constantly being asked to extend simulcasting privileges to entities that don't conduct live racing).

Turf Paradise ended its racing season back in May with a different buyer doing due diligence to purchase the property. On Aug. 1, track owner Jerry Simms announced Turf Paradise wouldn't be opening in November as scheduled for its traditional six-month meet.

On Sept. 18, the months-long purported sale with the first buyer was publicly declared dead. Then 10 days later, Simms announced a new buyer had suddenly emerged with a desire to purchase the 213-acre property and save racing at the 67-year-old track.

The AZRC met on Sept. 28 and Oct. 12 without anyone from the new prospective buying group speaking in person. But during the Nov. 9 meeting, Simms introduced Moore of Turf Paradise Land Trust, noting that the two parties have been at the escrow stage of the deal since Oct. 18.

“We're going through that contract and executing that contract and hopefully everything goes well and we're going to buy the track and continue on with the racing there in Arizona,” Moore said. “That's our main goal.

“We're very excited about this,” Moore said. “We're looking forward to it. And we're getting up to speed on where it's at [to] bring the track up to par and to also make it better and to move forward. And we're definitely committed to bring in the necessary funds and commitment and support to make this a destination. And we have a lot of dreams and hopes and things that we'd like to accomplish once we gain ownership.”

The Arizona Corporations Commission's website lists no active registration for Turf Paradise Land Trust other than a name reservation made on Oct. 2.

Beyond one question from commissioner Linda York about specifics on the buying group's timetable, Moore was not asked by the AZRC to detail anything about Turf Paradise Land Trust or its plans for the future of the Phoenix track.

Starting Gate at Turf Paradise | Coady Photography

York's question about the timing of the meet yielded a response from Moore that the season is projected to start Jan. 13 and would last “to May.” Moore added that the sale of the property would likely close before the end of 2023.

After Casillas weighed in that such a timetable might be a stretch, Simms told commissioners that he has already been in talks with the HISA Authority about fast-tracking the process for accreditation, and he claimed to have an assurance that “they could probably get that done a lot quicker [to] work with our time frames.”

Turf Paradise has been plagued by safety issues in recent seasons, and as recently as the Oct. 12 commission meeting, Simms and Yother sparred over whether or not extensive repairs are needed for the main track rail.

Yother claimed the fencing is not up to spec and Simms countered that Turf Paradise had fixed problems related to a non-compliance warning issued by the HISA Authority earlier this year after an inspection turned up “numerous gaps and exposed edges in the railing material that could inflict serious harm upon jockeys…”

At the Nov. 9 meeting, Arizona's chief state steward, Jason Hart, said he has been making regular visits to Turf Paradise over the past few weeks. Although Hart acknowledged that the rail had been “in pretty bad shape” at end of the last meet, he said every time he has visited since Oct. 23, he has observed workers shoring it up.

“My expertise or my opinion would be the rail looks very safe at this point,” Hart said. “There's a couple of things that don't look pretty with the rail, but it is absolutely safe in my opinion.”

Hart added that the turf course well pump has been fixed, and that the grass course is being watered regularly after being seeded and fertilized.

Hart also detailed how six barns have had the copper wiring cut out of them, but that he has been assured by current track management that electricians have been hired to re-wire those stables.

Hart also said frontside windows that appeared to have been blown out in a storm show evidence of being worked on prior to glass replacement.

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Simms Portrays Turf Paradise Sale as Lifeline, but Arizona Horsemen Grow Skeptical

A report that a purchase-and-sale agreement for the currently closed Turf Paradise is just days away from being inked was met with skepticism, frustration and even derision from horsemen at Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting.

Although the track's owner, Jerry Simms, framed the ongoing negotiations as a lifeline for Thoroughbred racing in a state that currently has no operational commercial track, J. Lloyd Yother, the president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA), said that Simms's oft-stated expectations of a new owner being able to conduct a race meet as soon as January are unrealistic, underscoring that, “my horsemen are getting pretty restless, and their livelihoods are at stake.”

Complicating matters for everyone is that the prospective deal has been shrouded in mystery since the buyer was first publicly named Sept. 28.

For the second commission meeting in as many weeks, no representatives of that would-be buying group appeared to speak about their plans for keeping racing alive at Turf Paradise during the Oct. 12 online-only meeting.

In fact, the name of that buying group–Turf Paradise Trust, LLC, whose principal is said to Frank Nickens–didn't even get mentioned by any party during Thursday's often-testy, back-and-forth testimony. Most references were generic, as in “the buyer.”

The Turf Paradise sale wasn't even officially on the meeting's agenda, either. But it was by far the dominant topic.

Commissioners largely just listened to Simms, the horsemen, and representatives from non-operational Arizona Downs spar verbally, and the board concluded the meeting without voting on or outlining any direct actions that would bring clarity to an increasingly confusing and controversial inflection point.

AZRC chairman Chuck Coolidge said toward the end of the heated discussion that the commission remained hopeful that “everything expedites in the right way.”

Other stakeholders used quite a bit more emotion when voicing their opinions on the Turf Paradise predicament, which stems from a months-in-the-making deal to sell the track falling apart on Sept. 18 and Simms announcing 10 days later that a new buyer had suddenly emerged with a desire to buy the 213-acre property and save the 67-year-old track from the wrecking ball.

“The state of Arizona horse racing is ridiculous. It's an absolute nightmare. Horsemen get fed information, some of it legitimate, some of it rumors,” said owner and trainer Cynthia George. “We're literally like children being used as pawns in a divorce battle [and] it's just absolutely unbelievable that horsemen get torn in every single direction…

“All these people want horsemen to have faith in the system,” George continued, “But what has really happened besides a lot of hot air? I don't know how else to explain it. Nothing real has happened…. We're trying to make life decisions. We're people with families…. And none of it is right. It should be completely unethical. It's fraudulent to keep posting media propaganda saying that Turf Paradise is going to open in January, when you can clearly go to Turf Paradise and see the walls falling off the grandstand.”

George's comments came after Simms testified that the deal was very close to coming together, and he repeated several times–like he had also stated on multiple occasions at the Sept. 28 meeting–that horsemen should be aware that he turned down offers of more money so he could try to make a sale to someone who wants to keep the sport going at Turf Paradise instead of developing the Phoenix property.

“I would say the contract should be signed this week. Could be [Friday]. Could be Monday or Tuesday,” Simms said. “There's just some other refinements to an agreement that have to be made. But I would say next week, for sure, and we'd have a signed contract. We already have a signed letter of agreement. This would be the purchase-and-sale agreement.”

Simms stated–but did not elaborate on–the fact that the buying group has had to change lawyers in the middle of these hectic negotiations.

In recent years, the relationship between the Arizona horsemen and Simms has been acrimonious. An extraordinarily long pandemic closure, multiple racetrack safety issues, and prolonged fights over off-track betting (OTB) privileges, simulcast signals, and how the horsemen's purse money can be used have roiled in the courts and at racing commission meetings.

Turf Paradise ended its racing season back in May with a separate buyer doing due diligence to purchase the property. But on Aug. 1, seven weeks before that sale was publicly called off, Simms announced the track wouldn't be opening in November as scheduled for its traditional six-month meet.

Arizona's horsemen have been dealing with heightened anxiety ever since.

“I understand it takes time and it's a big project to [arrive at] an escrow date and closing. But we're on such a tight time frame that my horsemen and my board are really uneasy,” Yother said. “This will be two weeks since we gave [Turf Paradise] the extension for the OTBs to run through Nov. 12, with the caveat that we can cut the signal at any time if something's not moving forward, and it seems to be at a stalemate.”

Even though Turf Paradise backed out of live racing for this autumn, Yother said the AZHBPA still gave its required permission for Turf Paradise to continue operating its 37 OTB outlets because the horsemen were led to believe those revenues would be used by Simms for repairs and upkeep that would allow the new buyer to begin a race meet in January.

“In the meantime, Turf Paradise has not started any work on repairs to the track to get ready for a meet,” Yother said. “Mr. [Vincent] Francia, the general manager of Turf Paradise, has expressed that he could possibly get ready in 60 days, but it would more likely be 90 days to get the track ready, to get horses in there. [So] we're not even close to being able to run in January. I think, in my interpretation, it's going to be either February or even later unless something happens between now and then.”

Yother said a number of outfits currently racing at Albuquerque Downs initially believed they would be allowed to remain at that New Mexico racino for a short while after the end of the Oct. 29 meet to keep their horses in training for Turf Paradise, but that is no longer an option.

“They've told them now they can't stay and they've got to go,” Yother said. “When Albuquerque's over, they've got to have a place to go. All we're trying to do is save racing in Arizona and try to find a place that we can bring our horsemen to and have a race meet. But [the Turf Paradise deal] is just being kicked down the road and kicked down the road, [and] it's at the point now where we have to do something or go to Plan B.”

Simms disputed that 60-90 day time frame for getting the track ready as “not an accurate number.” The dirt track just needs to be opened up, he said, and the turf course only needs a rye grass planting atop its current root system.

“There's nothing that has to be done to the barn area for the horsemen to come in,” Simms said. “Those barns are the same way they are now as when you left them” in May. “We're ready to go.”

Yother then responded with more specific list of repairs, including extensive work to the main track rail. Simms then disputed that needed to be done, claiming all the fencing had been fixed last spring.

“I'm just telling you that my horsemen and my board are extremely upset that nothing has taken place at this time. No good faith, nothing that's been happening at the track,” Yother said.

David Auther, a co-owner of Arizona Downs, wanted horsemen and commissioners to know that his track could provide the “Plan B” that Yother referred to.

“We still want to have our meet in May, or sooner, depending on what happens with Turf,” Auther said.

Arizona Downs didn't apply for a June-through-September race meet this year because of financial difficulties. The track formerly operated as Yavapai Downs between 2000 and 2010, when the ownership at that time filed for bankruptcy. It currently faces a Nov. 2 state administrative hearing on whether or not the AZRC should revoke its permit to operate because it hasn't been conducting live racing.

Permitting problems aside, Yother told the commission there is another problem that would give horsemen pause about working with Arizona Downs: He said both that non-operational track and Rillito Park, which traditionally runs weekends from early February through early April, are both in arrears for overdue purse money.

“They've been [put] on notice that if they do not get the horsemen's purse money paid, then we're not negotiating a new contract with them,” Yother said. “We have to get paid. We can't keep using our money when we're struggling and not getting paid on time.”

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