CHRB Approves NoCal Dates; New Whip and Drug Rules

by T.D. Thornton

The California Horse Racing Board approved a reshuffling of autumn race dates for the Northern California circuit on Thursday that will mean Golden Gate Fields (GGF) has to open, close, then reopen for a series of several one-week periods in succession to accommodate a dove-tailing of meets at other venues that host fairs. 

Heated discussions that erupted at the previous day’s ad hoc committee meeting to set the schedule were only passingly alluded to Thursday en route to unanimous passage of the dates swap. 

On Wednesday, the Blood-Horse had quoted an official with The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns GGF, as saying such a split-dates schedule was “broken beyond repair” and that TSG might be forced to consider selling the GGF property unless significant changes to the Northern California racing schedule were implemented for 2016. 

On Thursday, CHRB executive director Rick Baedeker presented a revised schedule that he said had been “worked out an agreement in real time” by the affected licensees Wednesday. 

Instead of being dark Sept. 14-Oct. 14 as had been originally been assigned, GGF will now race Aug. 21-Sept. 7 and again from Sept. 24-Oct. 4. 

The gap will be filled by the fair at Stockton, which will now race Sept. 11-20, one week earlier than scheduled. The Fresno fair will now push back its start date one week later than its original assignment of Oct. 1. Racing Oct. 8-18 allows racing at Fresno to commence at roughly the same time as the fair at the track’s location is in operation. 

“Whereas Fresno was misaligned with [its own] fair, it is now aligned,” Baedeker said. “That was the problem. Golden Gate then starts after that and will run through the end of the calendar in December.” 

The CHRB approved a request from TSG to consider the split autumn dates as a single meet for the purposes of GGF’s application. 

Separately, in response to a request from the CHRB to back up Wednesday’s assertions that GGF was incurring financial losses, a representative of TSG agreed to provide the track’s audited, stand-alone financial statements. 

The CHRB also approved a request by Oak Tree at Pleasanton to race June 17-July 6. 

Two regulatory actions that the CHRB had approved at earlier meetings were stamped as official by the California Office of Administrative Law. Baedeker said the most significant was a change to section 1688, which governs the use of the whip (which will now be referred to as a “riding crop” in the rules): “A jockey will be prohibited from using the crop more than three times in succession without giving the horse a chance to respond.” 

Also approved was a change to section 1866, which now reads, according to Baedeker, “A horse placed on the vet’s list as sick or having received veterinary shock-wave therapy may not work out for 72 hours after being placed on the list without the permission of the official veterinarian. Additionally, the action requires a horse to remain on the vet’s list for a specific number of days after being placed on the list as lame or unsound before the horse is eligible to be removed from the list. Both changes will be effective as of July 1. 

The CHRB unanimously approved an amendment to CHRB Rule 1843.2 (Classification of Drug Substances), to add cobalt to the CHRB Penalty Categories Listing by Classification, thereby establishing the violation and penalty guidelines for the presence of cobalt in an official blood sample. 

An amendment to CHRB Rule 1588 (Horse Ineligible to Start in a Race), also passed unanimously, “to provide that a horse is ineligible to start in any race in California if it is on the veterinarian’s list in another racing jurisdiction, unless with prior approval of the stewards.” 

CHRB Equine Medical Director Rick Arthur testified on behalf of the need for the amendment. 

“It’s an issue that has been brought up before the RCI (Racing Commissioners International),” Arthur said. “There are other states that respect veterinarians’ lists from other states, but this is an effort to try and get reciprocity nationwide. We don’t get a lot of those horses coming into California. We certainly have a lot of horses on the vet’s list in California that go to other states.” 

In an odd divergence over semantics, the CHRB debated for several minutes whether to change the wording of the veterinary list rule to “competent racing jurisdiction” before dropping the qualifier “competent” and voting to pass the amendment as written above. 

“What is there besides a ‘competent’ racing jurisdiction?” Arthur asked rhetorically, eliciting chuckles from the board members and audience.