Fair racing starts as Pleasanton prepares for a bigger role

PLEASANTON — When horse racing kicks off today at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, it will be the 150th year for racing at the oldest one-mile track in the United States.

And as usual, expect good crowds throughout the 11-day race meeting, as residents not only of Pleasanton, but also all of Alameda County, embrace it each summer.

Post time is 12:35 p.m. each day, with the exception of the two Saturdays (June 28 and July 5), when post time will be 12:20 p.m. The track will be dark Tuesday, July 1.

While this figures to be another year of big crowds, warm weather and exciting racing, this year is the beginning of bigger — and some will say better — things coming to the track in Pleasanton.

In addition to the 11 days of racing that come with the fair, the Pleasanton track is expected to pick up additional days of racing, given the impending closure of Bay Meadows in San Mateo. Racing will end at Bay Meadows when the San Mateo County Fair meet concludes on Aug. 17. There will be some auxiliary training taking place in San Mateo through the end of November.

Normally, Bay Meadows runs 22 weeks of racing, Rick Pickering, the CEO of the Alameda County Fair Association, said.

"We all anticipate 10-12 weeks of that time would go to Golden Gate Fields, which would leave 8-10 weeks for the Fair circuit," Pickering said.

Pleasanton seems a natural for some of those dates. "We see a 3-to-4 week Pleasanton

The Pleasanton track will certainly grow as a training center right away, as it will become the main auxiliary training center for Golden Gate Fields. Currently, it's business as usual in Pleasanton, but once Bay Meadows closes, expansion will be rapid.

"At this moment, it's really not much busier than it normally is," said trainer John Anderson, who was raised in Pleasanton and now trains horses there. "But things are going to change. I think it will be a good thing."

The wheels already have been set in motion for Pleasanton's training facility to expand, Pickering said.

"We have been asked by the California Horse Racing Board to add another 300 stalls," Pickering said. "We would then have 1,000, which is comparable to Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows. All of the other fairs have gotten out of year-round training, and Golden Gate Fields cannot stable and train all the horses needed to sustain its track."

With the year-round training expanding and the extension of racing dates on the horizon, Pickering said, "the push for a synthetic training surface in Pleasanton is coming from the training point of view. The owners and trainers want to train on the same surface they run on at Golden Gate Fields. We told (the Thoroughbred Owners Association), they need to come up with a way to help us pay for it."

It would be impossible for the Alameda County Fair Association, as a non-profit corporation, to pay for all the changes needed, meaning help must come from a number of sources.

Pickering said when the 2009 calendar comes out, look for a spring and fall meet to be listed for Pleasanton, but both will actually be held at Golden Gate Fields, with Pleasanton the financial benefactor. It's a step to fund the improvements and upgrades at Pleasanton.