by Jerry Klein

The California Horse Racing Board on Thursday denied Bay Meadows Racecourse’s request for a two-year waiver of the board’s decree that all major racetracks in the state install a synthetic surface by year’s end.

 The track sought the waiver because its owner, Bay Meadows Land Company, plans to raze the structure and replace it with a shopping center, a project already approved by the San Mateo City Council.

The 4-2 vote means that Bay Meadows will not be granted a license to hold a race meeting after its fall season concludes in early November. Representatives from the Thoroughbred Owners of California and California Thoroughbred Trainers spoke out at the meeting requesting the waiver be denied.

“What this means is that there will not be racing at Bay Meadows in 2008,” said track president Jack Liebau, who has been affiliated with the facility for decades. “I’m stunned. I think it’s a very, very dark day in Northern California.

“For a long time, Bay Meadows has been the backbone of Northern California racing. We’ve been a leader, we have the best backstretch in California, and the CHRB shuts us down at the end of the year. For racing in California, this is a day of infamy.”

Bay Meadows Land Company purchased Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California, with similar intentions of redevelopment but installed a CushionTrack surface there last summer in order to host racing while the long development process unfolds.

“The same company owns Hollywood Park and, in good faith, installed CushionTrack even before it was mandated,” Liebau noted. “We don’t even know if [a synthetic surface] would be possible to install here, even if it was economically feasible, because of the racing schedule.”

Located on the San Francisco peninsula midway between San Francisco and San Jose, Bay Meadows’ 70-plus year history includes a number of noteworthy appearances by the legendary Seabiscuit.

“We had a good run,” Liebau said. “We started in 1934 and ran to 2007. It’s a tough time for all the people that work at Bay Meadows, and some of them have been here a long, long time. Some of them have been here for 50 years. There will be a severe fallout from this. We have 1,000 stalls and horses are here all year long. I’d like to know where all the trainers are going to go with their horses.”

Jerry Klein is a California-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent