Jerry Simms

Turf Paradise is proposing to host a live meet next year that will run Jan. 2 through May 1, according to a letter from Turf Paradise general manager, Vince Francia, to the Arizona horsemen dated Thursday. Turf Paradise had previously announced that it had cancelled its 2020-2021 race meet due to health fears associated with operating a live meet during a global pandemic. For the proposed meet to go ahead, however, Turf Paradise management listed in the letter a number of caveats, namely that $2.1 million of disputed purse account...

Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting opened with the chairman Rory Goree asking stakeholders to "refrain from discussing anything" related to a controversial appeal over who controls purse account money that is scheduled for the October meeting. And it ended with Turf Paradise owner Jerry Simms apologizing for the frustration the state's Thoroughbred community feels over his decision not to incur liability by running a 2020-21 meet during a pandemic. In between those brief, book-ended statements that define the currently closed status of racing in Arizona, commissioners heard a slew...