Week In Review: Ferndale Sacrificed for the Hope of Saving California

Jun 222025

TDN – T.D. Thornton – Week In Review: Ferndale Sacrificed for the Hope of Saving California

The normal person felt an attachment to racing then that now doesn’t exist anymore. I feel other sports like darts, boxing and golf have taken that space in the media because the engine behind them has made them relatable to people.

Thoroughbred Racing Commentary – Oisin Murphy: The normal person felt an attachment to racing that doesn’t exist anymore

Going, Going, Gone

Phil has a question:

How does horse racing get back what is has let go and lost.

When non thoroughbred racing fans look at Ascot, the Breeders’ Cup, the Kentucky Derby etc. are they looking at the horses participating or the event.

TDN – T.D. Thornton – CHRB Again Votes Down NorCal Dates, Dashing Hopes For ’25 Racing At Fairs

Bloodhorse – Byron King – CHRB Again Denies Dates for Northern California Racing

Paulick Report – Ray Paulick – Humboldt County, Fresno Dates Applications Shot Down By California Horse Racing Board

Mostly, he wanted to know whether its future was bright. He was getting the sense it wasn’t, but he’d had too many different explanations thrown at him to understand exactly why not.

That right there was the problem, I told him. It wasn’t just the public concerns about racehorse safety. It wasn’t just integrity concerns about doping or the growing expense of drug testing, or the fact that testing, by its nature, is perpetually a step behind rule-breakers. It wasn’t just that racing is competing with new legal and illegal forms of wagering, or its long-standing inability/disinterest in attracting a new generation to that wagering, a struggle which has gone on so long now the most hopeful among us have given up on my generation and are focusing instead on Gen Z. It wasn’t only that the foal crop is shrinking and live racing is becoming less and less profitable as field sizes slowly contract, or that more and more wagering comes from computers instead of humans. It was all these things.

Paulick Report – Voss: A Farewell, And A Thank You To Readers

Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)

TDN – CHRB Votes Down Meet For Ferndale, The Last Remaining NorCal Fairs Track That Wanted To Race In ’25

Paulick Report – Ray Paulick – CHRB Food Fight? California’s Top Horse Racing Regulators Clash After Humboldt County Fair Dates Request Is Denied

Paulick Report – Keeping Pace – Andrew Cohen – Keeping Pace: California Screaming

Harness Racing Update- Nicole Kraft – Harness racing summarily ended in California

Paulick Report – Chelsea Hackbarth – ‘The South Killed The North’: Negotiations For Pleasanton Fall Apart

TDN – Dan Ross – Pleasanton Looks Set to Close for Training and Stabling After Tuesday

Paulick Report – Chelsea Hackbarth – Report: Pleasanton Training Extended One Month, New Investors Hope To Apply For Dates

TDN Dan Ross – Vote Opens Door to Summer Meet at Pleasanton, Big Hurdles to Clear First

TDN – Dan Ross – NorCal Political Figures Push to Extend Pleasanton Stabling Beyond March Deadline

Los Angeles Times – John Cherwa – Inside California horse racing’s complex problems that could hurt the sport nationwide