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Golden State Racing

With no decision yet about whether there will be a summer meeting at Pleasanton, Northern California horsemen are making plans to move elsewhere.

According to a report from Steve Andersen of Daily Racing Form, the horse population at Pleasanton has dwindled from near 700 early in January to just over 500 near the end of the month. Multiple trainers at Pleasanton do not expect training to continue past March and are considering other options for where to race.

Under an agreement between horsemen and the Alameda County Fair, Pleasanton was supposed to remain open as a training center for horsemen vanning their horses down to southern California until early June. However, fair operators have requested to shorten that time until March 25 unless 500 or more horses are based on the grounds as of late February.

Trainers are considering moving horses to Southern California as well as Emerald Downs in Washington. According to Andersen, Emerald Downs officials made a recruiting visit to Pleasanton during the week.

Trainer Blaine Wright, one of the established leaders at Emerald, plans to have a string of up to 40 horses there as well as a smaller string in southern California, according to Andersen. O.J. Jauregui, Andy Mathis, Tim McCanna, and Isidro Tamayo all plan to have a presence in southern California, with Steve Sherman reportedly considering it as well. McCanna and Tamayo also plan to run at Emerald, and Tamayo also has horses at Turf Paradise in Arizona.