It’s that time of year when industries (music, cinema, television, etc…) look back at the previous 12 months and review their ups and downs.
Horse racing is no different but rather than trying to choose the good, the bad and the ugly across the board, we give you just a few snippets of some significant developments of 2024 involving some of the sports favorite venues.
California Racing: The West coast suffered a significant loss in June when The Stronach Group closed Golden Gate Fields, a stage for Thoroughbreds in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of the last 83 years.
It’s not all sunshine and roses in the south, either. Del Mar and Santa Anita also have witnessed shrinking purses with Graded Stakes at the bare minimum to keep their classifications.
Except for the Breeders’ Cup, the only $1 million dollar races in the state are the Pacific Classic (G1) and the newly rebranded California Crown (G1).
Pimlico: The Maryland track had its last day of training August 31st as the 154-year-old track will undergo a $375 million dollar renovation, its first since 1960.
A subsidiary of The Stronach Group, sold the track for $1 dollar to the state of Maryland while retaining rights to run the Preakness Stakes for three more years.
The Preakness is expected to be run at Pimlico next May before it is moved in 2026 and 2027 to Laurel Park, which Stronach intends to sell afterward.
The Belmont Stakes: The third jewel in the Triple Crown got a new temporary home in 2024. The Belmont Stakes was held at Saratoga as part of a four-day racing festival.
With the massive project to rebuild Belmont Park getting underway, the race will again be held at Saratoga in 2025.
The Belmont Stakes is expected to return to Belmont Park in June 2026 ahead of the full opening of the new building, which is scheduled for September 2026.
Woodbine: All was not well at the Ontario track this fall, as it canceled the final two races on its November 9th card after two fatal breakdowns during races on its artificial Tapeta track and a third fatality during workouts that morning.
Racing was canceled the next day as well, but training resumed a few days later after a thorough review and extensive maintenance.
Tampa Bay Downs. On its biggest day of the year a problem occurred ahead of the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) on March 9th.
Just after the Florida Oaks (G3) was finished, with the Tampa Bay Derby coming up next, the tote board displaying the amount wagered on the Florida Oaks, the time of day and the top four finishers froze for almost an hour.
Meanwhile the 10 entrants for the Tampa Bay Derby made their way to the paddock for saddling and then endured a much longer-than-usual wait before the decision was made to proceed with the race, even though no more wagers could be taken.
Track officials also canceled the 12th (final) race. Ground control to Major SNAFU.
