Bob Hutton

The Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) would be amenable to Turf Paradise's latest proposal to conduct a live 2020-21 race meet as long as certain conditions of their own are met, according to a letter written by AZHBPA president Bob Hutton dated Friday and obtained by the TDN. "Because we are the heart and soul of horse racing in Arizona, we offer you all we have to help make Turf Paradise the venue for racing it can be and once was," Hutton wrote, pointing to the horsemen's horses,...

Ongoing tensions between the management of Turf Paradise and Arizona-based horsemen is placing the upcoming 2020-2021 meet under a cloud of uncertainty. Last week, Turf Paradise released a press release detailing plans to push back its opening day from Oct. 17 to Friday, Nov. 27. The revised dates meant an overall reduction in live race days from 133 to 110. "We are working with AZHBPA [Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association] president Bob Hutton as to a date when the horses can begin to arrive in the stable area," said...

Turf Paradise management and the Arizona horsemen have come to an agreement that will see the track remain open for stabling an extra 10 days. The track was scheduled to close its doors to the roughly 740 horses currently stabled there on the last day of April. Nevertheless, the track will remain open those extra 10 days for stabling only, and not training, meaning exercise will be limited to the barn area. "If this thing lasts longer than those 10 [days], then I think we'll probably be able to get...

In a special meeting Friday, the Arizona Racing Commission upheld its earlier decision to enforce a state law passed last year requiring all simulcast providers that send their races into Arizona to offer the products uniformly among all tracks and all their Off-Track Betting parlors (OTB). "I didn't expect anything different," said Bob Hutton, president of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), about the decision. The meeting, which went on for two-and-a-half hours, was well attended by individuals on both sides of the stand-off, said Hutton. "It was...