CHRB Says They’ve “Done All the Work on the Animal Welfare Piece”; 83 Dead Horses This Year Says Otherwise

A Christmas Eve article by John Cherwa in the LA Times is at its core an exercise in hand-wringing, as made clear by its title, “California horse racing is at a crossroads. Can it survive?” With Golden Gate Fields having begun its final-ever meet, which will leave the whole of Northern California without a single non-fair track, attention now turns to the south and that big existential question. And the general consensus from Cherwa’s interviewees is yes, but…

After GG closes there will be but three flat tracks (there is also the harness track Cal Expo) remaining in Cal: Los Alamitos, Del Mar, and Santa Anita. The first is owned by the older “Doc” Allred, with the prevailing wisdom being that it closes when he does. The second, while relatively profitable, is run on state-owned land that has other uses during the course of the year and is thus not likely to expand much beyond its “boutique meet” status. And the last is sitting on mega-valuable real estate, worth perhaps a billion or more. So, there is the very real possibility that owner Belinda Stronach is persuaded to cash in at some point in the not-too-distant future, “tradition” and all that be damned.

What came up several times in the piece was a general bemoaning of Cal’s lack of what Cherwa calls “a supplemental form of income” – but what we know as taxpayer-funded corporate welfare, the kind currently propping up some 75% of U.S. Racing. Alan Foreman, a long-time racing exec/attorney, sums it nicely: “There is a great sense of nervousness in California. There isn’t much margin for error. Without gaming in today’s world you are severely challenged. It’s very difficult to be competitive if you’re just relying on handle. There just isn’t enough money in the pipeline to do it.”

Imagine that, a business strictly relying on its own revenue to survive.

But what really caught my eye was this quote on a possible “expiration date” for Cal Racing from the obviously-compromised executive director of the CHRB, Scott Chaney:

“I don’t know if that’s 10 years from now or 20 years from now. I’m kind of an optimist and believe we have all the pieces in place [to keep that from happening]. We’ve done all the work on the animal welfare piece…and we have good relationships with citizens and even animal welfare groups.”

You’ve “done all the work on the animal welfare piece,” huh, Mr. Chaney? Well. California currently sits at 83 racehorse kills this year (those are just the ones publicly disclosed of course; surely there have been more). That’s up from 64 last year – a 30% increase. Over the past five years, 458 horses have perished at Cal tracks. Since we started doing this in 2014, the toll is a shade under 1,000 (973 to be exact). A joke.

And one other point, Mr. Chaney: Any groups you might have a good relationship with are not truly interested in animal welfare. As we’ve said – and report – ad nauseum, horseracing is inherently cruel and inevitably deadly, meaning there is but one position for any real animal advocate to take: Tear this thing down, track by track.