Larry Stumes

A new era in Northern California thoroughbred horse racing began Saturday at the Alameda County Fair facility in Pleasanton with hopeful participants.

When the Alameda County Fair opened June 14, racing secretary Tom Doutrich doubted whether he could muster enough horses to operate all 13 days of its scheduled meeting. After all, the final season at Golden Gate Fields — which closed for good June 9 — featured a 25% reduction in purses, just two stakes events instead of the usual 15 and the cancellation of six Friday programs because of a lack of entries. “We got crushed when Golden Gate Fields slashed their purses,” Doutrich said. “They took a…

Golden Gate Fields gets faint echo of former fandom for horseracing track’s last day

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The final season of thoroughbred racing at Golden Gate Fields begins Tuesday. The East Bay track that opened briefly in 1941 and has operated continuously since 1947 isn’t exactly going out with a bang. Purses have been cut 25% from recent seasons and number of stakes races has been slashed from 15 to just two: the $100,000 El Camino Real Derby (Feb. 10) and the Grade 3, $175,000 San Francisco Mile (April 27). “We have to switch from steaks to hamburger,” said Steve Specht, who has trained at Ba…

Golden Gate Fields will not close when its fall season ends on Dec. 11, as the track’s owner previously announced in July. Instead, the Stronach Group through its racetrack subsidiary 1/ST RACING applied for dates for a winter-spring season at GGF, and the California Horse Racing Board allocated them at its monthly meeting Thursday. The season will run Dec. 26-June 11 and delay the track’s closure for at least six months. “We are pleased we could work out a solution with our industry stakeholder…

The Stronach Group’s bombshell announcement this past week that it would close Golden Gate Fields at the end of the track’s fall season doesn’t necessarily mean the end of thoroughbred racing in Northern California. But it likely does mean a move 75 miles east to Cal Expo in Sacramento, where the California Authority of Racing Fairs is proposing to replace Golden Gate Fields’ racing dates — pending approval of the California Horse Racing Board. “Our position is that we’ll take over racing, and C…

Lammas with jockey Kevin Radke came from behind to beat both I’mgonnabesomebody and...

Most good European horses possess a strong finishing kick — a point jockey Brice Blanc...

Now 6, Nolde finally makes it back to the races Saturday at Golden Gate Fields in a full...