Report: Could Sacramento fill void after Golden Gate is closed?

Cal Expo in Sacramento could become the new center of a 10-month Northern California racing calendar, maybe within days of Golden Gate Fields going dark in December.

That was the thrust of an ambitious plan laid out this week by California Association of Racing Fairs executive director Larry Swartzlander, according to a Daily Racing Form report.

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If Swartzlander’s plan flies, Northern California would lose only eight weeks of its nearly year-round racing schedule. Cal Expo would host races in four stages from late December to mid-January, March to mid-June, the state-fair meet in July and finally from October through December.

The rest of the north-state racing year would be filled with traditional county-fair dates in the summer and early fall at Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Ferndale and Fresno.

The plan would involve the creation of a new company called Capitol Racing, which would run the Sacramento races that were not part of the state-fair meet. It also would look for money to build a turf course at Cal Expo. Once Golden Gate closes, the only grass track in Northern California is at Santa Rosa, where races are run for only two weeks in the summer.

Northern California was thrown for a loop Sunday when The Stronach Group announced it was closing Golden Gate Fields on the Albany-Berkeley line. The last day of racing there is scheduled for Dec. 10, although Swartzlander told DRF that he hoped Stronach would push the closing date back six months to help ease the transition to a Sacramento racing center.

Stronach has not responded publicly to that request or any elaboration on its Sunday news release.