ALBANY — The recent unexplained death of a horse last week at Golden Gate Fields didn’t appear to dampen the festive celebration on Sunday, the historic racetrack's final day of operation.
The Closure accomplished one other piece of the Bay Area's racing tradition. Another historic racetrack, Bay Meadows on the peninsula, closed in 2008 after 74 years.
Longtime fans who packed the 140-acre grounds were treated to a buffet lunch and one final memorial race, in addition to a probability to say goodbye to the one official horse racing track within the East Bay, which has seen hundreds of horses compete because it opened in 1941.
Outside, near the north entrance, Rocky Chau, an anti-racing activist, clutched a Golden Gate Fields mug he had picked up from a visit to the track along with his father within the Nineties, then threw it on the bottom and watched it shatter.
The piercing sound, heard over the din of the nearby highway, startled Chau's fellow attendees at an otherwise rigorously orchestrated public funeral for the estimated 2,000 horses which have died through the racetrack's 83-year history.
“Animals feel pain, just like we do; they feel love, just like we do!” chanted the protesters, who carried white plastic carnations, a fake coffin and signs reading “Close Golden Gate Fields.”
Overall, it was a day of celebration for the regional chapter of Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group known for its disruptive demonstrations of disobedience that usually end in criminal prosecution.
Horse racing may never be held in Berkeley again if voters this November approve a law banning factory farming. Facilities can receive this designation from federal authorities in the event that they house particularly large numbers of livestock – on this case, the limit is 500 horses.
Last 12 months, twenty horse deaths were reported at Golden Gate Fields, and 7 more have been reported thus far in 2024, including a thoroughbred pair named Lilly's Journey and Sam Spade last month.
Most were either euthanized by employees after suffering racing-related injuries or died for other unspecified reasons, in accordance with data from the California Horse Racing Board. Of the 82 horse deaths that occurred at seven California racetracks last 12 months, nearly 1 / 4 occurred at Golden Gate Fields.
The continuing death toll has tarnished the racetrack's proud history as the middle of American horse racing, which has hosted the likes of Triple Crown winner Citation, legendary comeback winner Silky Sullivan and legendary thoroughbred John Henry.
A serious Canadian conglomerate, the Stronach Group, acquired the property in 2011 and announced its closure last 12 months, with the goal of concentrating its racing investments in Southern California.
Separately, the group's founder, Austrian-Canadian auto parts magnate Frank Stronach, was arrested in Toronto on Friday. He is accused of many years of sexual assault, including rape.
Animal rights activists may welcome the closure of Golden Gate Fields, but it surely means the lack of jobs for around 200 employees, a lot of them immigrants, who will now must wait until the planned horse racing in Pleasanton this fall takes more concrete shape.
Some of the laid-off employees who cared for and groomed the racetrack's horses have been put in contact with social services to assist them find future employment. Berkeleyside reported.
“If you look at the conditions they had to work under at Golden Gate Fields, they were not great jobs,” said Almira Tanner, an organizer of Sunday's protest.
“I hope that as our society evolves away from using animals for entertainment, food and profit, we also support workers in that transition,” she added. “I would like to see workers helped to find a job that does not harm them or (the animals).”
Chau, the protester who destroyed his Golden Gate Fields souvenir mug, said the racetrack was a daily family outing – a central childhood memory that he only later realized played a job in his late father's gambling addiction.
“Golden Gate Fields and other horse racing tracks (in the country) make enormous profits – billions of dollars – from gambling addiction,” Chau said.
“And what's worse,” he added, “countless horses are systematically exploited, separated from their families and ultimately killed when they are found to be of no use in such horrific places as the Golden Gate Fields.”
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