Arizona Racing Commission meeting | Horse Racing Free Tips

California’s Purse-Cut Woes Driving Horses To Turf Paradise

Turf Paradise, which only weeks ago seemed either destined to remain dormant and in disrepair or perhaps even ready to face the wrecking ball, appears to be in the midst of orchestrating a remarkable comeback.

Track management, horsemen, and regulators all expressed confidence and a renewed sense of optimism during Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting that the Phoenix track was on target to hit a Jan. 29 start date for the first commercial-track meet in the state since May.

Several stakeholders underscored during the Dec. 14 meeting that a better-than-expected demand for stall space at Turf Paradise is being driven by recently reported purse cuts in neighboring California, where both the soon-to-close Golden Gate Fields (-25%) and Santa Anita Park (-5%) are projected to offer less money this winter.

“We are getting, at this time, more horses wanting to come in to Turf than we had previously anticipated,” Turf Paradise's general manager, Vincent Francia, told commissioners.

“I think we are benefitting–and I don't like to benefit from someone else's misfortune–but what's going on in California is producing an influx of horses to come over for the race meet,” Francia continued.

“I'm sure everybody has seen that Santa Anita is going to have to reduce their purses. No track wants to do that. But business is what guides that decision, and the primary reason is they're running six- and seven-horse fields, and our sport cannot survive on six-and seven-horse fields,” Francia said.

“The reason why I'm saying that [is] the anticipation of horses has exceeded our expectation for the upcoming meet. That is healthy for the Arizona racing industry to get back on its feet,” Francia said.

The projected slashing of purses in California and the resulting out-of-state migration was also discussed later on Thursday at the California Horse Racing Board's monthly meeting, where that commission's vice-chair, Oscar Gonzales, castigated Santa Anita and Golden Gate for contributing to the horse outflux.

“We have Arizona that's getting ready to reopen with higher purses,” Gonzales said. “Meanwhile, [California tracks are] cutting them. I just don't think that there's anybody paying very close attention about how we make sure we're retaining quality horses and quality horsemen.”

J. Lloyd Yother | Coady Photography

J. Lloyd Yother, the president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said during the AZRC meeting that Turf Paradise has gone from a situation of concern over possibly not being able to fill entries to potentially not having enough stabling to house all the horses that reportedly are on their way to Phoenix.

“The fear in the beginning was that we wouldn't have enough horses,” Yother said. “But according to the racing secretary [Robbie Junk], we're getting more than we anticipated, which is a good thing. So we may have ample number of horses. The only thing I'm concerned with is that we have enough barn area in the event that we do have those horses.”

Neither Francia nor Yother mentioned a specific number of horses that are expected to be on the grounds.

But Francia did confirm that only barns A through D and barn K would be used for stabling.

Yother said barns H through L “possibly need to be condemned.”

Trainers and their crews will be allowed on the backside starting Friday to set up stalls. Horses can begin arriving Monday, Dec. 18.

Francia said the previously problematic main track and rail, which had come under scrutiny from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority earlier this year, has now been brought up to spec.

“It took two weeks [of] 12-hour days, and the track is unlike anything that I have ever seen,” Francia said.

Yother offered this assessment: “The track was in horrible condition. It was unsafe. The rail wasn't right. But the management did step up [and] did a marvelous, marvelous job….

“The rail is excellent,” Yother continued. “The [dirt] track is good. The turf [seems] great. I'm just worried maybe [there's] overseeding with the rye grass and how much [use it will be able] to handle and [whether] the root system will be able to hold up. That's to be seen.”

Yother did articulate concerns about the half-mile training track at Turf Paradise.

“The training track is in bad, bad condition, and it needs to be [made safe],” Yother said. “I encourage management to do something to get the training track in as good shape as the main track.”

Back on Dec. 5, the AZRC gave unanimous but conditional approval for Turf Paradise's current owner, Jerry Simms, to conduct a Jan. 29-May 4 race meet.

Simms and Arizona horsemen have had an acrimonious business relationship for the better part of two decades, and permission for the upcoming meet was granted after one proposed sale of the track property fell through in September and another quickly-put-together sale is currently stalled but reportedly ongoing.

The conditions attached to the licensure have to do with Turf Paradise either complying with or getting the 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 overall safety standards.

Rudy Casillas, the deputy director of the AZRC's racing division, told commissioners on Thursday that “From a regulatory standpoint, the [AZRC] and HISA are doing everything reasonably possible to expedite the process while maintaining integrity and safety.”

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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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Safety Featured at AZ Commission Meeting

At a special Arizona Racing Commission Meeting Wednesday, Turf Paradise's equine safety record was once again a serious bone of contention, with commissioner Rory Goree calling the track's equine fatality numbers “deplorable.”

In her routine track safety report, Sue Gale, the Arizona Department of Gaming's chief veterinarian, explained that 22 horses have died at Turf Paradise since the start of the meet, on Nov. 5 of last year–nine racing-related fatalities, five during training, and eight due to illness.

The racing-related catastrophic injury rate works out to 2.8 fatalities per 1000 starts thus far this season at Turf Paradise. According to The Jockey Club, the national fatality rate for 2020 was 1.41 per 1000 starts.

Last year in Arizona–including both Turf Paradise and Arizona Downs–the fatality rate was 1.94 per 1000 starts, said Gale.

“Unfortunately, this month of January, we did have a week where there were four horse breakdowns within one week,” said Gale, who didn't provide any context on the possible reasons underpinning the fatalities other than to explain that such events are often multifactorial.

“We're waiting on the postmortems that we do on all racing fatalities and we will be having a racing safety committee meeting later this month to go over those reports and see if we can see any common factor that we can focus some attention on,” said Gale, who added that the safety meeting would likely occur after the next Arizona Racing Commission meeting Feb. 15.

Of the commissioners, Goree was by far the most critical of the situation. “We're still killing horses at a terrible rate out there, and I'm sick of it,” he said.

What's more, since the start of the latest Turf Paradise meet, there have been three equine ambulance failures, said Goree.

“One of them, a horse was picked up improperly. Another time, the second, the equine ambulance became inoperable and was unable to assist a horse on the track,” said Goree.

“The third time, an incident in the paddock in what was described as, quote, to me, 'a shit-show with the equine ambulance unable to get into the paddock until the 10th try and an incompetent track vet,'” said Goree.

“We keep killing horses like this, we're going to be out of business,” Goree said. “And I have to ask myself: How did we get to this point?”

One reason, said Goree, is insufficient funding to institute prior recommendations to tackle the state's rocky safety record, which goes back years.

Indeed, the high equine fatality rate during Turf Paradise's 2017-2018 season prompted the issuance of this commission report.

“What happened in 2017, our budget got whacked,” explained Goree. “Somebody went down to the legislature and lobbied to reduce RWA.”

The Regulatory Wagering Assessment (RWA) is a wagering tax used to fund the department.

“We got whacked by a million dollars. We were not able to implement bringing in another state vet. We were not able to implement bringing in another safety steward,” said Goree.

“And he we are, still with the same problems we had in 2017,” he added. “We're still killing horses at a terrible rate out there. And I'm disgusted about it, and I'm tired of it. We need to take action.”

Another key area of concern has been the condition and maintenance of Turf Paradise's training, racing and stabling facilities.

Indeed, an Arizona Department of Gaming inspection of Turf Paradise on Oct 20 last year–a little more than two weeks before the start of the current meet–found numerous human and equine health and safety failures, including a lack of necessary track maintenance equipment, and railings that needed to be fixed or replaced.

Some of the broken turf railing support arms “have sharp protruding points that would easily impale, severely injure or kill an equine or jockey if they were to fall on it,” the report states, before concluding with a list of eight key recommendations.

According to Rudy Casillas, the Department of Gaming's deputy director and racing division director, the agency continues to work with Turf Paradise to upgrade and purchase new equipment, the latter of which has recently included new tractors and a new roller to seal the track.

“We're monitoring with the track superintendent on a daily basis the track condition and whether it needs any soil and materials put into it,” said Casillas. “We have had Turf Paradise hire a consultant to come out, look the track over every couple of weeks and make recommendations.”

Casillas added that the department has inserted a provision into state and federal grant monies being issued to permitted tracks to fund the position of an additional veterinarian.

“That money would be held out to allow the department to hire a department veterinarian in addition to Dr. Gale, so that we can have 100% pre-race exams by certified veterinarians,” said Casillas.

A shortage of official veterinarians has been an ongoing issue in Arizona. Indeed, at the October commission meeting, Gale suggested putting a call out to practicing veterinarians in the area as an opportunity for them to “pick up some work.”

Nevertheless, Gale said Wednesday that Turf Paradise has recently hired a new track veterinarian, Alyssa Butler.

“She and I meet prior to the races to discuss which horses we consider might be of concern, and also after the races when she lets me know which horses have problems,” said Gale. “I think that communication has been key, and is going to maybe greatly improve, or would hope that it greatly improves, our outlook here for the remaining half of the Turf Paradise meet going forward.”

The current Turf Paradise meet is scheduled to end May 7.

Earlier on in the meeting, the latest attempt to return simulcasting signals from The Stronach Group (TSG)-owned racetracks into Arizona crumbled when the commission denied the company's Simulcast Horse Racing Import Signal contracts for Turf Paradise and Arizona Downs.

It has been roughly two years since Monarch–the TSG arm tasked with distributing the company's signal–sent its product into Arizona.

Representatives for Turf Paradise told the commission that the track supported their contract and that the loss of Monarch's signal had cost them millions in lost revenue.

Nevertheless, Kory Langhofer, counsel for Arizona Downs, argued that their contract provided an anti-competitive fee rate when compared to Turf Paradise, that it included an unlawful provision barring Arizona Downs from operating OTB sites within 60-miles of Turf Paradise, and that it unfairly prohibits Arizona Downs from unilaterally expanding its business.

“All three of these things together, we can't make it work,” said Langhofer.

In the end the commissioners agreed, denying the contracts on a 2-1 vote.

There also remains no confirmed race dates this year for Arizona's Rillito Race Track, which ordinarily runs a meet in February and March.

Casillas explained that there have been delays in the permit application process due to the track's questionable financial viability.

“We have discovered some financial concerns,” said Casillas. “We're working with them on a daily basis.”

Casillas added that Rillito projects approximately $120,000 a day in revenues from admission, parking and food and beverage sales.

According to Casillas, the department's own calculations show that it costs Rillito approximately $1.2 million to run the race-meet.

“Without the state and federal monies being contributed to them, they would be running a little shy to run the meet,” said Casillas. “I'm hoping that come the 15th everything is on track that we can proceed with having you review their financial state and determine whether or not you want to make an approval on their permit and race days.”

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