After Track Woes Delay Meet, Turf Paradise's First Week Of Racing Reported As Safe

After a nine-day delay to fix safety concerns that pushed back the opening of the 2024-25 racing season at Turf Paradise from Nov. 2 to Nov. 11, horsemen, jockeys, regulators and track management were all largely in concurrence Friday that the first four days of racing at the Arizona track this past Monday through Thursday were conducted in safe and sustainable fashion.

The largely positive reviews and glowing articulations of cooperation at the Nov. 15 Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting stood out in contrast to the contention and infighting that had become routine at commission meetings since the start of the 2020s decade.

Recent disputes often pitted horsemen against track management over issues having to do with everything from purses, race dates, simulcasting rights and track safety, all while the beleaguered Turf Paradise bounced through a years-long cycle of potential and scuttled sales to a series of buyers who eventually fell by the wayside, leaving longtime owner Jerry Simms still at the helm.

Simms, who often weighs in at commission meetings, was not a major participant during Friday's session. But his name came up often in terms of appreciation uttered by various stakeholders for his role in seeing Turf Paradise through its latest crisis, which was sparked by an Oct. 31 recommendation by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) that Turf Paradise delay the start of its racing season because of problems with the dirt surface.

“It was quite some trying times,” said Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) president J. Lloyd Yother. “We had some issues with the track that we were late in opening the meet, but we worked through those and things seem to be running very well.”

Last year, prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, the AZHBPA and the Jockeys' Guild had complained to state regulators that the main track rail was not up to spec even after HISA had issued a non-compliance warning to Turf Paradise and track management had made what it thought was adequate repairs. A HISA inspection in the spring of 2023 had turned up “numerous gaps and exposed edges in the railing material that could inflict serious harm upon jockeys.”

And then, just prior to the start of the current meet in the fall of 2024, four horses died at Turf Paradise. Two occurred as a while training prior to the meet's opening, according to Sue Gale, the Arizona Department of Gaming's chief veterinarian.

Gale said on Friday that Turf Paradise has had seven equine fatalities so far in 2024, dating back to the previous meet in the spring when two horses perished from illness and one from injury.

“Since that time, we've had two horses that had catastrophic limb injuries during training,” Gale said. “We had one other horse have a traumatic episode flipping over. And then we had, just recently, a horse that suddenly died [in the stable area] that we're investigating. They're all being necropsied, and those reports are pending.”

J. Lloyd Yother | Coady Photography

Over the first four days of racing, Gale said Turf Paradise took 340 entries. Of those, 33 horses were scratched (three pre-race unsound, three on the track as unsound or injured, and the remaining reasons being “stakes, stewards, illness, that sort of thing.”)

Gale said no horses were vanned off Nov. 11-14, although one was reported unsound after racing. Six others, she added, are to be given follow-up exams by the commission's vet team. There was one injury during training.

Juan Estrada, the assistant director for the Arizona Department of Gaming, told the AZRC that track management, state officials, and HISA have all been making progress together to ensure the main track and the meet stays safe.

“We're going to continue to monitor, document and report anything that we see. Turf is steadily addressing some of the major concerns we have,” Estrada said.

Darrell Haire, the western regional manager for The Jockeys' Guild, checked in with a brief report that amounted to a thumbs-up from riders.

“A lot of our concerns have been addressed, and [the fixes] are ongoing,” Haire said.

Two issues did percolate to the surface as needing more attention, though: Backstretch security and the track's ailing fleet of four water trucks.

AZRC chair Kandace French Contreras said that over the past week, while monitoring safety work at Turf Paradise, she has walked into the backstretch area at least six times via the north stable gate without once being checked for a license, and she stated she was certain nobody who saw her coming or going knew she held a VIP position with the racing commission.

“There was no security, no staff, nobody that stopped me from even going through the gate and going into the backside, and that concerns me,” French Contreras said. “Security goes a long way toward track safety, and I have concerns about somebody just being able to go into the backside without any questions.”

In response, Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia told the commission he would be instructing his security team to address that issue.

French Contreras then asked Yother to speak about his concerns related to the water trucks, which were not a problem that Yother had mentioned when giving his report just minutes before.

“I personally am not satisfied with the water trucks,” Yother said. “They're old water trucks. They've got issues [and] they break down quite often….They've got severe water leaks.”

Francia told commissioners that he has mechanics working to fix the problems while he tries to buy, lease or borrow secondhand water trucks from other tracks. He added that he has a lead on equipment that Freehold Raceway in New Jersey won't be needing after that harness track's planned closure at the end of 2024.

As Yother put it, “The four that we have we're going to have to make do with. It's not ideal, but it keeps us in business.”