How coronavirus restrictions lead to closing down Golden Gate Fields

Alameda County Public Health Department officials temporarily suspended live racing at Golden Gate Fields in Albany.

ALBANY — Golden Gate Fields was shut down Thursday just hours before the scheduled first post by Alameda County officials in an ongoing effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office announced its inspectors ordered the closure Thursday and that management agreed to comply with the decision immediately.

William Rizzuto, the racecourse’s assistant general manager, said in a brief interview that the track is closed at least until May 3, but training will be allowed to continue.

“We’re disappointed,” Rizzuto said. “We felt like we were pretty safe. But we have to abide by what the county wants.”

Rizzuto said more than 1,200 horses are housed at Golden Gate Fields, which sits between the San Francisco Bay and I-80 in Albany.  He added that about 400 people work the backstretch to take care of those racehorses. Many of them also live on site.

The track has been closed to everyone other than essential personnel since March 12. But live racing continued for online bettors.

Albany city councilwoman Rochelle Nason began questioning Alameda County public health officials last week about why Golden Gate was allowed to continued to stay open during the shelter-in-place order that has been extended to at least May 3.

She said in an interview Thursday that workers in the backstretch were not abiding by guidelines on “social distancing” or other precautions based on videos she saw of the track over the weekend.

Nason said she had tuned in on the internet to watch Thursday’s first post when “there was nothing.” Then the councilwoman received an email explaining the decision to close the track to live racing. Nason supplied this news organization with an email string to county officials about Golden Gate Fields.

An email dated Thursday from Colleen Chawla, the county’s director of Health Care Services Agency, said, “Dr. Erica Pan, Public Health Officer for the County of Alameda, reviewed information (including current racing video) regarding the continuing operation of the Golden Gate Fields racetrack in Albany.  She has determined that those operations are non-essential, and that social distancing is impossible during the race. She has determined that Golden Gate Fields must immediately cease operations during the term of the current shelter-in-place order, or as amended, and that Golden Gate Fields may only continue Minimum Business Operations as defined in the March 31, 2020 Health Officer Order No. 20-04.”

The email added that the edict was given to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office.

“The office is working alongside all county partners to keep our communities safe and to flatten the curve,” District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement. “It is vital that every one of us – businesses and individuals alike – practice social distancing and, whenever possible, stay at home. This is how we will save lives.”

The action Thursday follows the Sacramento Health Department’s decision Wednesday to suspend racing at Cal Expo. On March 27, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department temporarily closed Santa Anita Park in Arcadia. Santa Anita and Golden Gate are owned by the Stronach Group, which came under scrutiny last year because of a spate of racing and training deaths at its Arcadia site.

Aidan Butler, the Stronach Group’s chief strategy officer, said government officials have overlooked the welfare of the horses and those who take care of them. About 1,200 workers tend to 3,000 horses at the two Stronach-owned tracks in California, Butler said. He added that many of the workers live at the tracks.

Butler said the temporary closures will threaten the livelihoods of both humans and animals.

“Do you want the people who live here to leave and become homeless?” Butler asked. “Do you expect the animals to roam free? I’m hoping we can find a way through this but it’s not looking good.”

Butler also has argued that stopping racing won’t necessarily blunt the spread of the coronavirus because the same people who work the events are the ones in the backstretch tending to the horses.

“I understand the optics,” he said. “But we have to keep looking after the animals.”

Golden Gate Fields joins Keeneland in Kentucky, Aqueduct in New York, Laurel in Maryland to cancel live racing.

The Kentucky Derby, America’s biggest race held on the first weekend in May, already had been postponed until Sept. 5. The Triple Crown’s other races — the Preakness (May 16) and Belmont Stakes( June 6) — have yet to decide if they also will push back their events.

The California Horse Racing Board, which governs the sport in the state, had previously stated it would rely on government officials to guide its decisionmaking when it came to COVID-19.

“In this time of an extraordinary health crisis and pandemic, the (board) is relying on state, county and local health authorities to determine whether horse racing is deemed essential for exemption from shelter-in-place orders issued by those authorities,” the board said in a statement. “The CHRB will assist health authorities in enforcing their decisions.”

Rick Arthur, the state’s equine medical director, said in a recent board meeting that the horses didn’t need to race to stay healthy.

“It is a health consideration that they train,” he said. “These are very fit, healthy, very good feeling athletes, and you just can’t keep them in a stall. You have to get them out and train them.”