California | Horse Racing Free Tips

Weekly Stewards and Commissions Rulings Sept. 12-18

Every week, the TDN publishes a roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky.

on how each of these jurisdictions adjudicates different offenses, what they make public (or not) and where.

With the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) having gone into effect on July 1, the TDN will also post a roundup of the relevant HISA-related rulings from the same week.

California
Track: Los Alamitos
Date: 09/16/2022
Licensee: Victor Espinoza, jockey
Penalty: $500 fine
Violation: Excessive use of the whip
Explainer: Jockey Victor Espinoza, who rode ANGEL NADESHIKO in the eighth race at Del Mar Race Track on September 11, 2022, is fined $500.00 for violation of Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority rule #2280(c)(4) (Use of Riding Crop – use of riding crop after the finish of the race).

Track: Los Alamitos
Date: 09/17/2022
Licensee: Erick Garcia, jockey
Penalty: One-day suspension, $250 fine
Violation: Excessive use of the whip
Explainer: Having violated the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2280 (Use of Riding Crop) and pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties – Class 3), Jockey Erick Garcia, who rode DREAMER GIRL in the third race at Los Alamitos Race Course on September 16, 2022, is suspended for ONE (1) day (September 23, 2022), and fined $250.00 for one (1) strike over the limit. Furthermore, Jockey Erick Garcia is assigned three (3) violation points that will be expunged on March 17, 2023, six (6) months from the date of final adjudication pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties).

Track: Los Alamitos
Date: 09/18/2022
Licensee: Juan Lopez, jockey
Penalty: One-day suspension, $250 fine
Violation: Excessive use of the whip
Explainer: Having violated the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2280 (Use of Riding Crop) and pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties – Class 3), Jockey Juan Lopez, who rode MINING CRYPTO in the second race at Los Alamitos Race Course on September 17, 2022, is suspended for one (1) day (September 24, 2022), and fined $250.00 for three (3) strikes over the limit. Furthermore, Jockey Juan Lopez is assigned three (3) violation points that will be expunged on March 18, 2023, six (6) months from the date of final adjudication pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties – second offense since September 2, 2022). Jockey Juan Lopez has accrued a total of six (6) points.

Track: Los Alamitos
Date: 09/18/2022
Licensee: Ricardo Ramirez, jockey
Penalty: One-day suspension, $250 fine
Violation: Excessive use of the whip
Explainer: Having violated the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2280 (Use of Riding Crop) and pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties – Class 3), Jockey Ricardo Ramirez, who rode ASPHALT ANDY in the fourth race at Los Alamitos Race Course on September 17, 2022, is suspended for ONE (1) day (September 24, 2022), and fined $250.00 for one (1) strike over the limit. Furthermore, Jockey Ricardo Ramirez is assigned three (3) violation points that will be expunged on March 18, 2023, six (6) months from the date of final adjudication pursuant to Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Rule #2282 (Riding Crop Violations and Penalties – 3\pard plain ^rd offense since July 4, 2022). Ricardo Ramirez has accrued a total of nine (9) points.

Track: Los Alamitos
Date: 09/18/2022
Licensee: Peter Miller, trainer
Penalty: $3,000 fine
Violation: Out of competition medication use
Explainer: Trainer Peter Miller, who administered an intra-articular corticosteroid injection to the horse LIAM'S DOVE on June 22, 2022, is fined $3,000 for violation of California Horse Racing Board rule #1866.3(c)(e) (Intra-articular Injections Restricted – treatment within ten [10] days of workout).

New York
Track: Aqueduct
Date: 09/17/2022
Licensee: Edgar Bayeh, agent
Penalty: $2,500
Violation: Violation of claiming transfer rules
Explainer: Mr. Edgar Bayeh is hereby fined the sum of $2,500 dollars for violating rule # 4038.4 Sale, transfer restricted. This for transfering horses to another trainer prior to the 30 days from the date of the claim.

Track: Aqueduct
Date: 09/17/2022
Licensee: Mitchell Friedman, trainer
Penalty: $2,500
Violation: Violation of claiming transfer rules
Explainer: Mr. Mitchell Friedman is hereby fined the sum of two thousand five hundred ($2,500) dollars for violating rule #4038.4 Sale, transfer restricted. This for transfering horses to another trainer prior to the 30 days from the date of the claims.

Track: Aqueduct
Date: 09/17/2022
Licensee: Javier Castellano, jockey
Penalty: $1,500 fine
Violation: Unfulfilled riding obligations
Explainer: Jockey Mr. Javier Castellano is hereby fined the sum of one thousand five hundred ($1,500) dollars for failing to fulfill his riding obligations.

Kentucky
The following rulings are from prior weeks and have only recently been posted.

Track: Kentucky Downs
Date: 09/12/2022
Licensee: Joel Rosario, jockey
Penalty: Three-day suspension
Violation: Careless riding
Explainer: After a hearing before the Board of Stewards, Joel Rosario who rode Happy Gal in the sixth race at Kentucky Downs on September 8, 2022, is hereby suspended three days, September 18, September 19 and September 20, 2022 for careless riding in the stretch tat resulted in the disqualification of his mount.

Track: Kentucky Downs
Date: 09/14/2022
Licensee: Chris Hartman, trainer
Penalty: $500 fine
Violation: Prohibited electronic therapeutic treatment
Explainer: After waiving his right to a formal hearing before the Board of Stewards, Chris Hartman is hereby fined $500 for prohibited electronic therapeutic treatment (use of portable handheld massager) of Necker Island within 24 hours prior to post time of race nine at Kentucky Downs on September 10, 2022 in violation of 810 KAR 8:010 Section 3 (7), which necessitated a late scratch.

NEW HISA STEWARDS RULINGS
Note: While HISA has shared these rulings over the past week, some of them originate from prior weeks.

Violations of Crop Rule

Albuquerque Downs
Cordarelton J. Benn–ruling date September 18, 2022
Luis Ramon Rodriguez–ruling date September 18, 2022

Arapahoe Park
Pacific Harbor–ruling date September 13, 2022

Delaware Park
Jeremy Alicea–ruling date September 13, 2022
Jean Alvelo–ruling date September 13, 2022
Gerardo Milan–ruling date September 16, 2022

Emerald Downs
Jacob Ryan Samuels-Wynecoop–ruling date September 18, 2022

Fanduel / Fairmount Park
Carlos Ulloa–ruling date September 13, 2022
Alvin Ortiz–ruling date September 13, 2022

Golden Gate Fields
Evin Roman–ruling date September 18, 2022

Horseshoe Indianapolis
Edgar Morales–ruling date September 12, 2022
Mickaelle Michel–ruling date September 13, 2022
Marcelino Pedroza–ruling date September 14, 2022
Abel Lezcano–ruling date September 15, 2022
Bryan Rivera–ruling date September 15, 2022
Orlando Mojica–ruling date September 15, 2022
Marcelino Pedroza–ruling date September 15, 2022

Kentucky Downs
Rafael Bejarano–ruling date September 12, 2022
Tyler Gaffalione–ruling date September 12, 2022
Edward Baird–ruling date September 12, 2022
Jack Gilligan–ruling date September 13, 2022
Francisco Arrieta–ruling date September 14, 2022

Mountaineer Park
Jason Simpson–ruling date September 14, 2022
Alex Gonzalez–ruling date September 14, 2022
Jose Luis Vega–ruling date September 14, 2022
Angel Diaz–ruling date September 14, 2022
Marco Camaque–ruling date September 14, 2022

Parx Racing
Hay Nineteen–ruling date September 14, 2022

Prairie Meadows
Alex Birzer–ruling date September 17, 2022

Presque Isle Downs
Ramon Romero–ruling date September 13, 2022

Remington Park
Luis Quinonez–ruling date September 16, 2022

Saratoga
Nazario Alvarado–ruling date September 13, 2022
Luis Cardenas–ruling date September 13, 2022
Amin Castillo–ruling date September 16, 2022
Kendrick Carmouche–ruling date September 17, 2022

Thistledown
T. J. Houghton–ruling date September 12, 2022

Voided Claims

FanDuel/Fairmount Park
Bows N Lace–ruling date September 17, 2022

Monmouth Park
Kamenshek–ruling date September 17, 2022

Mountaineer Park
Federale–ruling date September 13, 2022
Spirit Mission–ruling date September 14, 2022

Thistledown
Venetian Dream–ruling date September 12, 2022
Amigo's Affair–ruling date September 12, 2022
Rumpole–ruling date September 13, 2022
Kissthecross–ruling date September 13, 2022

Violations Involving Forfeiture of Purse
Saratoga
Amin Castillo–twelve strikes; $500 fine; 3-day suspension; purse redistribution

Emerald Downs
Jacob Ryan Samuels-Wynecoop–eleven strikes; $500 fine; 3-day suspension; 5 points; purse redistribution

Saratoga
Kendrick Carmouche–ten strikes; $500 fine; 3-day suspension; 5 points; purse redistribution

Mountaineer Park
Jason Simpson–ten strikes; $500 fine; 3-day suspension; 5 points; purse redistribution

Appeal Request Updates
Delaware Park
Ademar Santos
Crop rule violation
Ruling date September 3, 2022
Appeal filed September 13, 2022
No stay requested

Saratoga

Amin Castillo
Crop rule violation
Ruling date September 16, 2022
Appeal filed September 18, 2022
No stay requested

Golden Gate Fields
Evin Roman
Crop rule violation
Ruling date September 18, 2022
Appeal filed September 18, 2022
Stay requested/subsequently denied

The post Weekly Stewards and Commissions Rulings Sept. 12-18 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Editorial Relocated To Rancho San Miguel

Stakes-siring stallion Editorial (War Front–Playa Maya, by Arch), a half-brother to successful sire and champion Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie), will move to Rancho San Miguel in California to stand for $3,500 live foal guaranteed next year. He most recently stood at Anchor & Hope Farm in Maryland. His oldest foals are 3-year-olds.

“If I were to compare the U.S. stallion market to the U.S. stock market, I would say we are acquiring an emerging stock at the optimal time for California breeders,” said Rancho San Miguel owner Tom Clark. “Editorial has come out firing with quality in his first batch of runners, and has already shown that he can significantly improve his mares.

“His rare combination of sire power in War Front and Uncle Mo is sure to appeal to our state's breeders, who enjoy racing on a variety of surfaces and at a variety of distances.”

Bred by the Playa Maya Syndicate, the 8-year-old developed into a maiden winner at Gulfstream for the Coolmore partners and Todd Pletcher. Retired to stud in Maryland in 2018, the full-brother to G1 Irish 1000 Guineas runner-up Could It Be Love (War Front)'s progeny are led by two-time stakes winner Alottahope, as well as the stakes-placed My Thoughts.

Clark added, “Climax Stallions is retaining an ownership stake in Editorial, so he will be well-supported with top mares, including from our farm, as we take the baton and navigate him through the important next phase of his stallion career.”

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On Eve of Pacific Classic, Sadler Just Doing His Job

Four years ago on the eve of the GI TVG Pacific Classic, the hunt for the heavy favorite amid the lettered labyrinth of Del Mar's backstretch ended at Barn J.

The stall, of course, belonged to Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), a sleek, shiny copper penny of a colt, who carried weighty expectations that this was the year his trainer, John Sadler, would finally shrug off the voodoo that had cursed his previous attempts at the coveted prize.

It was also viewed as a new high altitude for a horse whose climb to the summit of the sport had been distinguished not by a dizzying free-climb to the top, but by careful, steady progress. Each foothold earned and true. A trail of sweat left behind at each contour.

The team wasn't without worries. The horse's regular rider, Victor Espinoza–widely seen as something of a key to Accelerate's latent talent–had that July taken a crunching fall aboard the Peter Miller trained Bobby Abu Dhabi, whose sudden death during training left Espinoza with a broken C3 vertebrae in his neck and fears, miraculously temporary, of paralysis.

In the end, Espinoza's replacement, Joel Rosario, has probably ridden no easier winner before or since, quickly putting what looked like the length of a football pitch between him and his dumbstruck rivals with a stunning kick around the home turn.

Four years on, and the hunt for this year's heavy favorite on the eve of the Del Mar showpiece once again leads to Barn J.

“Right now I'm excited, but I'm not overly excited,” said Sadler, Wednesday morning in his office, of Flightline (Tapit), whose stall-padded floor to ceiling as though housing a madman, faces the office door.

To be fair to Flightline, we're not talking Hannibal Lecter. “He's very content here,” Sadler said. “Loves Del Mar. He's just a nice horse to be around. But you know, he has his quirks. He can be a little aggressive in the stall.”

As for Sadler's declaration of studied equilibrium, it provides a measured counter-point to the celebrity fandom that follows each rare race-day sighting of the horse.

“We've got a couple more days,” Sadler added. “When you get in race week and everything's gone well, you just want to maintain that. That's really the message coming out of here this week. He doesn't have to run any faster. He's just got to run the same as he's been running.”

Words to strike fear into the heart of this weekend's competitors, all of whom will have witnessed Flightline's clinical evisceration of the 21 hapless victims strewn in his wake between races one to four.

If indeed Flightline turns up on Saturday and runs the same as he's been running, the race will prove a fascinating bookend to Sadler's own trajectory these past few years, catapulting a stellar record into even higher orbits.

Accelerate, of course, subsequently secured Sadler his first Breeders' Cup victory, in the GI Classic and a Horse of the Year garland would surely have followed were it not for a Triple Crown that went the way of Justify (Scat Daddy).

Hitherto winless in the Pacific Classic prior to Accelerate, the trainer has since secured another two victories in the race, courtesy of Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) in 2019 and Tripoli (Kitten's Joy) last year.

The GI Santa Anita “Big Cap” H. was another West Coast landmark oddly absent from Sadler's travel card until Accelerate righted that wrong. Stablemates Gift Box (Twirling Candy) and Combatant (Scat Daddy) followed up over the next two years. The likes of Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags), Rock Your World (Candy Ride), Cistron (The Factor) and Flagstaff (Speightstown) each have played a part in keeping the heat turned on full.

Then came Flightline, a stratospheric talent from whatever plain you're on. A big long-striding and magnificent comet, blink and you'll miss him bright. The numbers have been crunched, cogitated and digested. Four races, four wins. Average distance of victory is 10.9 lengths. Beyers from a Death Valley summer of 105, 114, 118, and 112.

“Is this the best horse I've ever trained? I say, yes. I don't hesitate,” Sadler said. “I've never trained a horse like this in my 30, 40-odd year career. But I don't compare him to other great horses. That's for the sports writers and the handicappers and Timeform.”

Which piqued this writer's curiosity. What kinds of stresses come with the responsibility of a horse who draws inevitable comparisons to the likes of Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire})? What new instruments has he brought to the trainer's toolbox? Would he have had the skills to harness Flightline's talents if the horse had landed in his barn, say, 20 years prior?

“The horse is teaching me all the time,” Sadler said, before extolling the virtues of patience.

The horse's coterie of owners–Hronis Racing, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds, Siena Farm, and Woodford Racing–all receive a gold star.

Despite their multitude, “the owners always allow me to do as I see fit,” he said. “It's all worked so far. So far so good.”

Pressed further, the trainer threw up his hands–the wrong week to wheel out the therapist's couch.

“You're asking me to be super reflective and conceptualize a lot of that stuff, but right now I don't allow myself to do that. I just do my job right now,” Sadler said. “Might be a better interview next week.”

Fair enough stick with the tangibles, like Flightline's last race, the GI Hill 'n' Dale Met Mile on GI Belmont S. day, when a sticky break propelled the horse into stop-start opening furlongs.

Given Flightline's lack of match practice, could the events of the Met Mile have been a blessing in disguise?

“People say that, which is fine. It probably was. But I sure like to break clean. I don't like to put any, you know,” Sadler said, pausing either for effect or the right words, “obstacles in the way.” This explains Flightline's homework assignments at Del Mar this summer, which included a five-furlong bullet from the gate at the end of July.

Then comes another tangible–the as yet unchartered distance of the Pacific Classic. “It's a big ask, you know, to go from a mile to a mile and a quarter,” Sadler said.

Though the stamina of lesser horses can be stretched out, explained the trainer, “when I talk about really good mile-and-a-quarter horses, first of all, they have to have the innate ability to run that far.”

With Flightline, “I've just got to hold him where he is,” he added. “On breeze days, you'll note that his gallops out are very good.”

Much has been made of the team's efforts at reining in Flightline's innate exuberance–a balancing act perhaps too easily under-appreciated.

Stifling too much of a horse's natural quirk and athleticism of a morning can sour them as fast as cream left out in the sun. Let the throttle out too far too often, just watch as the wheels fall off.

Juan Leyva, Sadler's assistant, has done a “beautiful job with him” of a morning, says the trainer, calling it a case of “two minds meeting.”

“He's getting more relaxed, you know,” Sadler added, of Flightline. “He is maturing. He's showing he can carry himself in a more relaxed manner. That's what we're seeing, which is a normal progression.”

As for Saturday, “I see a small field, but a very good field. I know these horses intimately and they're very good,” said Sadler. “We have a lot of respect for every horse in there.”

The Bob Baffert-trained Country Grammer (Tonalist), this year's G1 Dubai World Cup winner given a timely pipe-opener in the GII San Diego H. early in the meet, receives plaudits for his prior top-flight victories over the trip.

Sadler has watched the John Shirreffs-trained Express Train (Union Rags) “throughout his career,” he said. “He's a very nice horse.”

As for Ed Moger's Stilleto Boy (Shackleford), vanquished in Flightline's GI Malibu S. last December, “I like him a lot,” said Sadler.

But talk switches back to the horse mere feet away, saved from himself by padded walls and kept from the public's gaze by a series of well-documented issues and events. Sadler has kept the door open to a 5-year-old campaign. How serious are those overtures?

“We'll get into Saturday and then see how it goes.”

Now, about that interview next week…

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Multiple Moving Parts in Monarch, AZ Simulcasting Morass

For over two years, the simulcasting signal from 1/ST-operated racetracks, along with several others around the country, has been missing in Arizona–the residual fall-out from a long-simmering dispute between the owners of Arizona Downs and the arm of The Stronach Group (TSG) tasked with distributing the company's signal.

In both California and Arizona, stakeholders argue that this simulcasting blackout has hit both the bettors and the industry–by how much appears open to debate.

A recent analysis by the Arizona Horseman's Benevolent & Protective Association (AZHBPA) of the projected lost revenue to California purses between 2020 and 2021 pinned the number at more than $1,1 million, and another nearly $900,000 in lost track commissions.

The estimated loss to Turf Paradise alone between the years 2021 and 2022 amounts to more than $1 million, said Vince Francia, general manager of Turf Paradise. For Arizona Downs, however, the impact has been “negligible,” say track operators.

Scott Daruty, president of TSG's Monarch Content Management, also downplays the impact of the hamstrung signal to Monarch's bottom-line, saying that the resulting lost fees is only a fraction of Monarch's total business. He also disputes the AZHBPA's projected losses to the California purse account.

Monarch's umbrella extends over several California tracks–including Santa Anita Park, Del Mar, Golden Gate Fields and Sonoma County Fair–as well as Turf Paradise, Lone Star Park, Gulfstream Park, Laurel Park, Pimlico, Rosecroft Raceway, Monmouth Park, and Meadowlands.

Against the backdrop of this ongoing dispute, there are indications that 1/ST is eyeing potential inroads into the Arizona marketplace.

Within recent months, representatives of 1/ST have visited Turf Paradise with the intention of possibly purchasing the facility, said Francia. AZHBPA executive director, Leroy Gessman, said that 1/ST recently did the same at Arizona Downs.

According to two sources familiar with the situation, 1/ST has made a thus far unsuccessful bid to purchase Arizona Downs.

Daruty declined to comment whether 1/ST has indeed made any formal bid to purchase Arizona Downs but called the Arizona marketplace “one that appears to have potential.”

“At that point, you're negotiating with a terrorist, right?”

The genesis of this rather convoluted simulcasting dispute goes back years.

In summary, when Arizona Downs reopened for live racing in 2019, Monarch sent its signal to the track itself but not to the track's network of Off-Track Betting parlors (OTB), and at a higher rate than its Arizonan neighbor, Turf Paradise.

In contrast, Monarch distributed its signal to Turf Paradise and its network of some 60 OTB's.

When asked about the contracting disparities between both Arizonan tracks, Daruty said at the time that Arizona Downs had been “consistently delinquent in its payments to our racetracks.”

In an effort to resolve industry stakeholder disgruntlement, the state passed in 2019 a law requiring all simulcast providers that send their races into Arizona to offer the products uniformly among all tracks and all their OTBs.

The following January, the Arizona Racing Commission passed a motion requiring the three racetracks in the state–Turf Paradise, Arizona Downs and Rillito Park–to comply with that law.

The commission also sent a letter to Monarch to “stop sending any simulcast signals to Arizona permittees racetracks and/or their additional wagering facilities.”

To all intents and purposes and despite various legal maneuverings in the interim, that state of affairs has remained, and Monarch has not beamed its signal into Arizona since.

At the start of Santa Anita's most recent winter meet, Monarch approached the operators of Arizona Downs with an offer of all Monarch content to the entire Arizona marketplace, including to Arizona Downs' network of OTBs, said Daruty.

According to Daruty, the operators of Arizona Downs made several unilateral modifications to the contract which were unacceptable. They included reducing the fees paid to Monarch tracks below the previously contracted rate between them, and a requirement for Monarch to “pre-approve” new simulcast locations without the ability to conduct legal and regulatory due diligence, said Daruty.

“At that point, you're negotiating with a terrorist, right?” said Daruty, once again raising Arizona Downs' reported history of delinquent payments.

“We can't abandon our principles and abandon our reasoned business approach to distributing our signals,” Daruty added.

Detailing a back-and-forth process of negotiations, Tom Auther, an Arizona Downs owner and partner, said that Monarch initially offered Arizona Downs a contract with non co-mingled pools–what he described as an immediate non-starter–and then an offer charging the track overall as much as twice what Turf Paradise was paying.

Monarch subsequently declined Arizona Downs' counter-offer, which was to pay Monarch 20% more in fees than Turf Paradise, said Auther.

“Twenty percent's still a lot of money,” Auther said. “If we paid what they want us to pay, the horsemen would not approve it because there'd be no money left–only three percent left in horse purses.”

When asked about Arizona Downs' reported history of defaults, Auther said that they had offered Monarch to escrow an adequate amount of money to offset the anticipated costs. “They refused it,” said Auther.

In an effort to understand the impact from the nixed signal into Arizona on California's horsemen, the Arizona HBPA contracted the firm Global Racing Solutions–founded and operated by Pat Cummings–to run the numbers.

According to GRS' calculations, California horsemen lost $1,115,000 in purse contributions between 2020 and 2021, and California track operators missed more than $877,000 in commissions during that same period.

To put that into perspective, California's purse total in 2021 was some $118 million.

TDN reached out to Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), who declined to comment.

As for Monarch, when they last ran the numbers, “the host fees that the Monarch tracks received out of the state of Arizona were less than one percent of the total host fees received by the Monarch tracks,” Daruty said. “It just doesn't move the needle for us.”

Daruty also said that the AZHBPA's projected California purse loss numbers were over-estimated, though added that Monarch hadn't run their own calculations.

And what of the potential impacts on the Arizona tracks? Again, there are mixed-signals.

Between 2021 and 2022, Turf Paradise lost an estimated $1,011,317 due to the missing Monarch signal, the estimated loss to the purse account was $944,915, and the estimated loss to the Regulatory Wagering Assessment (RWA)–a wagering tax used to fund the state racing department–was $61,139, according to Francia's calculations.

Auther, however, shared handle numbers with the TDN–taken, he said, from the state commission's website–comparing the year 2021 with 2018, when Turf Paradise received the Monarch signal.

According to Author's numbers, Turf Paradise lost in 2021 more than $8 million in overall handle compared to 2018. Turf Paradise operated in 2021 with 13 fewer OTBs than in 2018, however, and those OTBs were closed for 1038 days more than in 2018, according to Auther's calculations.

Auther also estimated that the annual hit to Arizona Downs' business without Monarch has been negligible. “It exists,” said Auther, about the loss. Horseplayers, however, have simply adjusted their betting patterns to other available options, he said, adding that the loss of the Monarch product to Arizona Downs was one of quality rather than numbers.

More broadly, Arizona HBPA president Bob Hutton broached what he sees as some of the more deeply felt impacts to the state's racing industry.

“With the state of racing the way it is, when we're trying to get fans to the sport, why is this good?” said Hutton, critical of Monarch's part in the negotiations. “This is costing horsemen all over the country money, and why? I don't get it.”

Turf Paradise, it should be noted, has been for sale since at least 2020.

According to Francia, 1/ST representatives recently toured the track with a potential eye to purchase the facility. “They have not made an offer but they have looked at the track,” he said.

According to Gessman, representatives from 1/ST have similarly toured Arizona Downs, adding that he was present at the visit.

According to two sources who wished to remain anonymous, 1/ST made the owners of Arizona Downs an offer for the facility which was subsequently declined.

Both Auther and Daruty refused to comment on any possible offer that 1/ST has made for Arizona Downs.

Though calling the Arizona marketplace one with potential, Daruty added that “I think all the infighting and frankly some of the regulatory dysfunction has just left it in a place that's not healthy.”

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