Turf Paradise

This week saw the final horses stabled at Turf Paradise leave the premises as the facility closes its doors for the summer beneath an array of question marks dangling over the industry in the state. For one, the horses weren't the only Turf Paradise residents to vacate the facility this week. At the beginning of May, track management sent the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) a letter giving the organization 30 days to "remove its belongings" from its Turf Paradise office and to "remove the trailer (medical trailer)...

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...

After the operators of Turf Paradise announced suddenly over the weekend that racing was suspended and that trainers stabled there had until March 28 to vacate the premises as a result of the coronavirus, a compromise has been reached keeping the track open to training until May 1, with the doors to shut May 9. As part of the negotiations between the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) and Turf Paradise management, the HBPA will pay half of the expenses incurred for track maintenance while horses remain training there...

Turf Paradise has announced that it is ending its season immediately due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, and to assist Arizona in slowing the spread of the illness. Recently Governor Doug Ducey declared a public health emergency and he signed a bill that would spend $55 million in Arizona to combat the virus. The track's Clubhouse and Turf's network of Off Track Betting locations will remain open for simulcasting at other tracks. Live racing had been scheduled to run until May 3. Live racing at Turf Paradise will resume in...

The Arizona racing industry is now well into month two of the simulcasting stand-off between an arm of The Stronach Group (TSG) tasked with distributing the company's signal and the Arizona Department of Gaming. In a leveraging bid, the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) this week voted to withdraw the Turf Paradise signal from all Stronach Group affiliates. According to a letter from the Arizona HBPA to the Arizona Department of Gaming dated Mar. 11, such a move would involve the following TSG-affiliated entities: Santa Anita, Golden Gate...

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...

The simulcasting stand-off between an arm of The Stronach Group (TSG) tasked with distributing the company's signal and the Arizona Department of Gaming has nearly reached the two-week mark, and the affected stakeholders are sending out mixed signals of their own as to its impact. The issue surrounds 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). On Jan. 24 of this year, the Arizona Racing Commission passed a...

Three days into a state-mandated simulcast standoff that has resulted in Arizona horseplayers being unable to wager on signals distributed by a subsidiary of The Stronach Group (TSG), management at Turf Paradise issued a press release to try and quell rumors that the track would be closing because of its inability to accept wagers on popular winter tracks. "Turf Paradise is not going out of business. The Phoenix-based track...is not closing its doors," stated the first line of an update posted on the track's website signed by Turf Paradise general...

Richard Hazelton, who transitioned from a successful career as a jockey to become a perennial leading trainer on the Chicago circuit, passed away Tuesday. The father of TVG personality Scott Hazelton, Richard Hazelton was 88 years old. The elder Hazelton was the leading rider at Agua Caliente Racetrack in 1945 in a colony that also included the likes of Johnny Longden, according to a video recently posted on Twitter by TVG. "He had a fake ID that was supposed to allow him ride that year at Del Mar that said...