Golden Gate stays dark after widespread COVID outbreak
When Golden Gate Fields abruptly shut down racing on Nov. 13 it was made known that the track was experiencing a COVID outbreak and racing would be suspended through Dec. 1. As of Tuesday, there was still no indication of when racing would return to northern California.
symptoms.
With very few people showing symptoms, it took time to realize that an outbreak was occurring. According to the report, the first major sign was when a man in trainer Ed Moger's barn was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator. The rest of the barn was subsequently tested and nine of the 15 remaining workers returned a positive. While they were immediately isolated, the damage had already begun.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” a local trainer told Raguso. “Everybody I talked to had at least somebody in their barn who tested positive.”
Longtime Golden Gate trainer Bob Hess, father of Southern California trainer Bob Hess Jr., is among those who tested positive for the coronavirus. Though he said it just felt like a cold at first, Hess was taken to the hospital due to his age. The 86-year-old trainer did not place any blame on the management of Golden Gate Fields for the outbreak.
“I’m not always one to compliment them, but I think management did their share,” Hess told Raguso. “I don’t think they did anything wrong. Maybe, as people, we didn’t do our jobs.”
Golden Gate Fields has been taking the temperature of all employees once per week since the return of racing March following a countywide shutdown.
Following this most recent shutdown, the track will now test employees' temperatures twice a week and will require each person entering the track to fill out a health screening form.
The track has been fortunate that most employees have now recovered as they hope to continue their meet, but the health of each worker remains the top priority going forward, officials noted.
“Our top priority at the moment is to make sure that everybody recovers and that everybody is satisfied that the storm has passed,” Golden Gate General Manager David Duggan told Raguso. “Our primary focus at the moment is the welfare of the community. We’re all hopeful we can all get through this.”