Lloyd Yother | Horse Racing Free Tips

The Week in Review: HBPA Tries to Derail HISA in Federal Court–But Also Wants Its Help in Arizona

If the saga over the supposedly pending sale of now-closed Turf Paradise was a soap opera, its title would surely be “AZ the World Turns.” The state's racing is hanging in the balance amid an increasingly acrimonious long-term feud between the track's owner and horsemen, leading one trainer at last Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting to liken the horse community's predicament to children “being used as pawns in a divorce battle” by vindictive parents on the verge of a nasty split.

Although TDN's original story about that Oct. 12 commission meeting didn't have the space to cover all aspects of the ongoing bickering among the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) and Turf Paradise's owner, Jerry Simms, one subplot is worth further mention here, because its irony resonates at the federal level (and perhaps soon all the way to the United States Supreme Court).

Lloyd Yother, the president of the AZHBPA, alleged on Thursday that Simms is so far behind in making necessary repairs and upkeep that a new, incoming owner would never be able to open Turf Paradise for a race meet in January, a target date that Simms has said is perfectly reasonable as he attempts to execute a purchase-and-sale agreement with a buyer who has thus far refused to speak publicly about the deal at Arizona commission meetings.

In particular, Yother and Simms sparred verbally over the specific issue of whether or not extensive repairs are needed for the main track railing, with Yother claiming the fencing is not up to spec and Simms countering that Turf Paradise had fixed problems related to a non-compliance warning issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety (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…”

Darrell Haire, the western regional manager for The Jockeys' Guild, told commissioners on Thursday that the Turf Paradise rail during the 2022-23 season “was patched up the whole meet. And I don't know what condition it's in now, because it's just getting older. It's just deteriorated. So I believe that it has to be replaced. The patchwork they did was finished the last week of the meet, and it was supposed to be done at the beginning of the [last] meet.”

Haire's points are well-taken. But to understand where things got interesting in this particular argument, you have to widen the lens to encompass the HBPA's 2 1/2-year-old legal quest to kill off HISA over alleged constitutional violations. Keep that court fight in mind when considering what Yother next suggested at that meeting:

“I have a recommendation that maybe we ought to ask HISA to come back in and take a look at the track, to maybe get a step ahead of some of the delays that we're encountering now,” Yother said. “If we get HISA to send somebody in to look at the track [we can] see what's going to have to be done before anybody will be able to race, whether it be current owner, future owner, or whatever.”

Yes, that's the president of an HBPA affiliate, whose own organization–plus its national parent and 11 other HBPA affiliates–have written in court documents that the HISA Authority functions like “a private police department” with sweeping powers that equate to “oligarchic tyranny,” now calling upon that very same Authority to intervene when the AZHBPA needs an entity with federal clout to advocate for its own cause.

This unlikely juxtaposition of the AZHBPA asking the HISA Authority for help while it's simultaneously trying to eradicate that regulator and its enabling law would be stunning were it not overshadowed by the truly dire overall predicament that Arizona racing now faces.

'Notion' is 'Great' in two states

Saturday's win by Witty in the $100,000 Maryland Million Turf Sprint S. over 5 1/2 furlongs at Laurel Park extended an impressive streak set by Great Notion, the state's top stallion by progeny earnings every year since 2018 (and the leader so far this season). His offspring have now won at least one Maryland Million Day stakes in 14 runnings of that event, dating to 2010.

But the Maryland Million win wasn't even the biggest payday for a Great Notion-sired runner in a state-restricted stakes on Saturday. Later that evening, Coastal Mission splashed home by 5 3/4 lengths in the $300,000 Sam Huff West Virginia Breeders' Classic at Charles Town. Despite racing beyond seven furlongs for the first time, the 4-year-old was pounded to 1-5 favoritism and delivered by wiring the field over the three-turn, nine-furlong distance.

Owned, bred and trained by Jeff Runco in partnership with his wife, Susan (Coleswood Farm), the win was the sixth straight for Coastal Mission. The gray has won nine of his last 10 dating to December, with all of the victories coming at Charles Town. His lone defeat was a fifth back in March when the gelding ventured to Laurel for a stakes engagement. In West Virginia, he's scored in state-bred stakes, open allowances, and also in the open-company $250,000 Russell Road S. last time out.

Coastal Mission's lifetime mark stands at 11-3-1 from 16 starts, with $572,728 in earnings.

Bred, owned, and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, Witty is a 4-year-old half-brother to last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint victress Caravel (Mizzen Mast). She was also bred and initially trained by Merryman prior to joining trainer Brad Cox for owners Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel and Madaket Stables.

On Sunday, the 6-year-old Caravel just missed giving her dam, Zeezee Zoomzoom, two six-figure stakes winners on the weekend. She ran second as the odds-on favorite in the GII Franklin S. at Keeneland.

Jockeying for Graded Stakes

Flavien Prat won that aforementioned Franklin S., closing the gap to one victory in the North American jockey race for most graded stakes wins in 2023. Heading into the lucrative Breeders' Cup championships, this battle is shaping up as a two-rider run-off, with Irad Ortiz, Jr., (36) narrowly ahead of Prat (35).

Through Sunday's races, the next closest jockeys are Juan Hernandez (24), Luis Saez (21), then Tyler Gaffalione and Joel Rosario (20 each).

Ortiz has ridden in 11 more graded stakes than Prat. Interestingly, Hernandez is the top percentage rider among the leaders, winning graded stakes at a 31% clip from only 77 chances (everyone else mentioned has ridden in at least 121 graded stakes).

Last year Ortiz topped Prat 50-42.

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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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New Buyer for Turf Paradise Emerges

The current Turf Paradise owner is courting a new buyer who just emerged last week as a potential savior for keeping racing alive at the state's otherwise-closing cornerstone track.

On Thursday, the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) voted to extend Turf Paradise's simulcasting privileges through Nov. 12 while regulators commenced a due diligence vetting process that could greenlight the sale.

The stated goal among stakeholders is to start a race meet in January under new ownership at the Phoenix oval.

The current management announced back on Aug. 1 that the 67-year-old track wouldn't be opening for live racing as scheduled in November.

The principal buyer in the deal was named as Frank Nickens by Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) president Lloyd Yother.

At a different point in the meeting, Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia said Nickens hadn't been able to attend the online-only Sept. 28 meeting, so he instead read a prepared statement on Nickens's behalf that Francia said was signed by Richard Moore, the chief executive officer for an entity called Turf Paradise Trust, LLC.

But other than disclosing the names of the principals and their potential buying group, virtually nothing was discussed at the meeting regarding their business or racing backgrounds.

The name of that limited liability company is not currently listed with the Arizona Corporations Commission, although it is possible the deal is coming together so quickly that the registration does not yet appear in the government's database.

“A lot of people have to understand that this guy [just] came forth [Sept. 20],” Yother said. “I do not know Mr. Nickens. I have no connections to Mr. Nickens. And all I can go on is what he discussed with the contract group with the HBPA.”

Yother said Nickens met Tuesday with AZHBPA representatives for several hours, then spoke again at an AZHBPA board meeting on Wednesday, at which the horsemen gave the prospective buyer their support to approve temporary simulcast permissions commencing Oct. 1.

That permission from the horsemen is necessary so that Turf Paradise's advance-deposit wagering agreements and 37 off-track betting parlors under won't go dark after Sept. 30 and can still generate purse account money.

“This all had happened in the last three or four days,” Yother said. “But it's the only 'olive branch,' if you will, that we could grab ahold of at this time to keep the OTBs open and running. All we're looking for is someone to run live racing in the state of Arizona and to save the industry.”

A planned sale of Turf Paradise to a different buyer, CT Realty, was first made public Apr. 12. At that time, TDN reported that racing was expected to continue there only as a placeholder for several more seasons while new uses for the 67-year-old venue went through the planning, approval, and construction stages.

About a month later, CT Realty announced that it would consider keeping racing going on a longer-term basis if it could successfully lobby the state legislature to approve historical horse racing machines or some other form of gaming at the track.

But on Sept. 18, Jerry Simms, who has owned Turf Paradise for 23 years, made it public that the deal to CT Realty had fallen through, and that the track and its simulcasting outlets would close Sept. 30.

The Nickens-led LLC buying group emerged immediately thereafter, Simms said.

“We've entered into a letter of intent. A purchase contract is being sent [Thursday] morning,” Simms said. “I believe the [AZRC on Wednesday] sent him his papers for his licensing and permit,” Simms said.

As Francia explained, “The plan is to open a live race meet in early January, and that is what we are all aiming for.”

Simms has been on the record since 2020 as saying that Turf Paradise operates at a “huge negative” financially.

Simms said several other potential buyers wanted the 213-acre property after the CT Realty deal blew up, but he underscored that he wants to sell to the Nickens group because that entity wants to keep the sport going instead of redeveloping the track for some other purpose.

“I had several buyers for the track. And I chose the buyer that I signed an agreement and [am] moving ahead with because he plans to run racing,” Simms said.

“He's very much an enthusiast; wants to have racing, is not interested in [redevelopment],” Simms said. “I want to save the industry, the jobs. I could have gotten even perhaps more money with one of the other buyers, [but I wanted} to save racing.”

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

“The purchase and sale, he's ready to move ahead,” Simms said. “He said he could close in 60 days.”

Simms added that if the deal doesn't get done by January, or if the AZRC hasn't completed its vetting process, he would be open to some sort of leasing arrangement that would enable a race meet to begin in 2024 even if the sale isn't official.

“Hopefully the [AZRC] will have enough time to do their due diligence. But the purchase and sale, he's ready to move ahead.”

The prepared statement from the Nickens entity that Francia read into the record stated that the new LLC is “working towards the purchase of Turf Paradise racecourse. We plan to keep live racing and to bring this facility into a new era [and continue] horse racing for the benefit of everyone involved. We feel the preservation of such a wonderfully historical facility and the preservation of thousands of jobs horse racing offers can carry the legacy of Turf Paradise on for another 50 years. We plan to completely redevelop the surrounding land, all for the benefit of horse racing. We look forward to a new, bright future for everyone at Turf Paradise.”

Beyond the horsemen-vs.-Simms feuding that has hovered over Arizona racing like a dark cloud for years, Turf Paradise and Arizona Downs, 82 miles north in Prescott Valley, have continually been at odds over race dates and the control of simulcasting signals.

Arizona Downs didn't apply for a June-through-September race meet this year because of financial difficulties. It has been mentioned as being up for sale or lease for well over a year, with 1/ST Racing and Gaming often rumored (but never confirmed) to be a potential buyer.

Arizona Downs formerly operated as Yavapai Downs between 2000 and 2010, when the ownership at that time filed for bankruptcy.

David Auther, a co-owner of Arizona Downs, questioned at Thursday's meeting why Turf Paradise would be getting simulcasting privileges even though its current ownership has stated it wants out of the live racing business.

“We need to consider enforcing the statute that is on the books that says each track gets its signal during its meet, and only during its meet,” Auther said.

“Having said that, we congratulate Turf Paradise on finding this buyer,” Auther continued, expressing slightly sarcastic incredulity about the prospect of “a guy that nobody knew of a week ago who's going to come in the door and pay hundreds of millions and have a contract in four days.”

Added Auther: “I'm sure that somebody's going to vet this. And I have a hunch the vetting won't take very long [and] we'll all know how to proceed here.”

TDN phoned Auther after the meeting and left a voicemail asking if he'd elaborate on why he didn't think the Nickens group's vetting process would take long. No callback was received in time for this story.

Nor did Francia, of Turf Paradise, return a message left by TDN asking for details about the deal and the background on who, exactly, the buying group is.

As AZRC chair Chuck Coolidge quipped at one point during Thursday's meeting, “It's not a traditional Arizona Racing Commission meeting without the two tracks going against each other, as always.”

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New Site Plan for Turf Paradise, but Future Racing Still Hinges on Gaming Legalization

A conceptual site plan newly submitted to the city of Phoenix for the proposed industrial development at Turf Paradise calls for the closure of the track once the under-agreement sale goes forward and development begins. But the incoming owner is still floating the idea of resuming racing at the 67-year-old Thoroughbred venue in the future if historical horse race gaming gets legalized in Arizona.

Audrey Jensen of the Phoenix Business Journal first reported Aug. 8 on the new details about the project, which has been named Winner's Circle Business Park. It proposes eight industrial buildings and two data centers on the 213-acre property that is being acquired by developer CT Realty. The sale, which was announced back in April, is on target to close by the end of this year.

James Watson, the managing partner of CT Realty, told the Phoenix Business Journal, “If we can get [gaming legislation] accomplished I think we can put the racetrack back on a really firm footing and build really beautiful product around it. We're at the moment trying to get some support from the governor…to create a big income stream to the state through these taxes.”

The new details about the Turf Paradise sale and development came one day after Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) president Lloyd Yother wrote in an open letter that he would “fight like hell” to ensure racing in the state is not dead.

“There are still many avenues to consider that will save Arizona horse racing. There are even options that include the possibility of running a late race meet in 2023 or possibly early in 2024,” Yother wrote. “If these don't pan out, our board will continue to exhaust every means available to bring horse racing back to Arizona in the very near future.”

Back on Aug. 1, the current ownership that is selling at Turf Paradise announced it wouldn't be opening the track in November as planned for its 2023-24 race meet. In response, horsemen held out hope that the incoming ownership would be willing to operate the remainder of the scheduled season from January through May 4. That aspect of the plan has not been confirmed by CT Realty.

When Turf Paradise concluded its 2022-23 meet in May, Arizona was left without an operational commercial race meet.

Arizona Downs, 82 miles north of Turf Paradise in Prescott Valley, didn't apply for a June-through-September race meet this year because of financial difficulties. That track has been mentioned as being up for sale or lease for over a year. It formerly operated as Yavapai Downs between 2000 and 2010, when ownership at that time filed for bankruptcy.

Elsewhere in the state, Rillito Park in Tucson traditionally runs weekends from early February through early April. Earlier this year, Cochise County Fair in Douglas ran a two-day mixed meet Apr. 15 and 16, as did Santa Cruz County Fair at Sonoita May 6 and 7.

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