Golden Gate closes

GOLDEN GATE FIELDS, CA -- On bright June mornings at the end of training when a cool breeze is skimmed from the top of San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Fields suspends in midair. The remaining horses gallop by almost silently, save for a sound like the ripple of a kite tugging at a string. Behind them, the infield water fountains shiver and hiss while above, western gulls turn and wheel on invisible wires. It's a world contained--its shoulder braced against the whirring cogs of time, straining against the pull. Then...

Tom Clark is the owner and manager of Rancho San Miguel, where more than 400 horses currently roam a sprawling 250-acres in California's San Luis Obispo County. He owns and manages the farm with his wife, Nancy. They have run it since 2000. The farm is a lynchpin of the state's breeding industry, housing as it does such workhorses of the California breeding shed as Sir Prancealot (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) and Mo Forza (Uncle Mo). But Clark harbors a grim prediction for the future of the...