Turf Paradise future appears uncertain after GM’s sudden exit

The immediate future of Turf Paradise was shrouded in uncertainty after president and general manager Tom Ludt’s abrupt exit Thursday from the company that runs the Phoenix racetrack. That has led to a series of emergency meetings, including one Monday and another Tuesday.

“I have resigned,” Ludt said in a text message Monday night to Horse Racing Nation. “The majority owner and I philosophically and ethically don’t agree, so I left.”

Ludt was referring to Gary Hartunian, a longtime horse owner and real-estate investor who founded Rockingham Ranch stable in Southern California. Hartunian started Skyfall 7, the company that has run Turf Paradise for the last 11 months with Ludt in charge of day-to-day details. Skyfall 7 has a two-year lease with Jerry Simms, who has owned Turf Paradise and its 213 acres since 2000. Hartunian’s company also operates 36 off-track-betting shops across Arizona for Simms.

Flashback: Ludt stresses Turf Paradise on-track experience.

“Hartunian says (Ludt was) fired,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Horse Racing Nation on Tuesday. “They are in a big, major pissing contest.”

With the 2026-27 meet scheduled to start late next month, Hartunian has been running the emergency meetings with “all the players, (including) owners, management, horsemen and, of course, attorneys, ... to hopefully arrive at agreement and direction,” according to another source with a history at the track.

One participant in Monday’s meeting said Hartunian tried to be reassuring.

“He said he’s going forward and running a meet, and he didn’t want us to be concerned about not having a meet,” said Leroy Gessmann, executive director of the Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

Gessmann said he was confident “the meet will start” on time Nov. 27, but he also said he is concerned about the short- and long-term future of the 70-year-old racecourse.

“We’re a little nervous,” he said, “but yeah, we’ll get through it. If all this happened during the meet, that’s one thing. But happening two weeks before you’re supposed to start getting horses in, it’s a little (rough). But we’ll get through it.”

Gessmann said there appears to be no general manager to run the track in Ludt’s place, and Dylon Álvarez has not been replaced since he was said to have been let go as track superintendent in May, right after the 2025-26 meet ended.

“Freddy Álvarez, Dylon’s father, has been there a little over a year running the turf course,” Gessmann said. “Tom’s plan was that Freddy was going to take over and manage the dirt course as well. ... Right now (Hartunian) doesn’t have a general manager, and he doesn’t have a track superintendent, so I’m not sure where he’s going from there.”

Hartunian had not responded to text and voice messages left for him Tuesday morning by HRN. Ludt did not answer a call Tuesday morning to follow up on his Monday text.

David Johnson, who started working at Turf Paradise in 2014, is the assistant general manager who presumably would be in line to replace Ludt. According to one racing executive, Johnson is “reluctant because of his relationship with Tom.”

Yet another figure may emerge from all the infighting. Sources say Joey Platts, a horse owner and building-equipment contractor from Scottsdale, Ariz., wants to buy out Hartunian and bring back Ludt. Platts took on a minority stake in Skyfall 7 last autumn.

“Joey Platts is a Tom Ludt fan, and Hartunian obviously is not, since he fired him or Tom quit, whichever one you want to say happened,” the stakeholder said.

Platts could not be reached by HRN on Tuesday morning.

One trainer said stall applications for the upcoming meet cratered this fall. He said that was a result of a “worried sick” lack of confidence in Hartunian and Skyfall 7.

Anonymity was requested by the sources mostly because of the ongoing uncertainty about who ultimately will run Turf Paradise. As one of them put it, “I don’t want to piss off anyone who I might have to work with.”

All this uncertainty comes after a year of steady progress under Hartunian and Ludt. Skyfall 7 spent millions of dollars to repair neglected infrastructure at Turf Paradise, which opened in 1956. The improvements have included upgrades to the dirt and turf courses to meet Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority demands, repairs to the barns, replacement of broken plumbing, complete makeovers of neglected rooms on the property and even fresh coats of paint.

“This summer was much more enjoyable than the last few summers,” Gessmann told the Arizona Racing Commission on Sept. 10. “We’re excited for the new race (season).”

Even through those positives, there has been an undercurrent threatening the future of Turf Paradise. Simms, 80, who has said for years that he wants to retire, wants to sell the Turf Paradise property. Although he has insisted he wants to preserve racing, Simms also pointed out that the property in the Deer Valley section of north Phoenix would command bigger dollars from commercial developers.

Hartunian wants to buy enough of the land to keep Turf Paradise going, but in April he told Axios Phoenix that he and Simms could not agree on a price. Hartunian also said if he cannot cut a deal with Simms, he would build a new Turf Paradise somewhere else in Phoenix, all the while knowing the clock is ticking on a lease that expires next year.

In the new season due to start Black Friday, Turf Paradise was forced last month to reduce its 2026-27 racing calendar from 104 to 80 days, a move ratified by a 4-0 vote of the racing commission. Ludt said the track’s hands were tied by governor Katie Hobbs, a first-term Democrat who seeks re-election next month.

“The governor struck from the budget money that we were thinking we were getting,” Ludt told the commission. “Unfortunately, handle was not up much from last year, so in order to work with a purse allotment that we felt would be good for the horsemen, we worked with the HBPA on this. Eighty days was going to keep purses equivalent to last year. Anything more than that would have cut purses.”

Three years ago Hobbs slashed Turf Paradise’s $5 million annual allotment that began as a COVID relief grant. Another cut came after attorney general Kris Mayes said last year that a budgeted payment of $1 million to Turf Paradise violated the gift clause in the Arizona constitution.

The condition book for the first 11 days of the upcoming meet shows $1,271,200 in purse money for 88 races, an average of $14,445. Ludt said last month that the total amount available for the meet would be reduced from the $11 million paid in 2025-26.

The stable area is scheduled to welcome horses Oct. 19 with training set to start Oct. 26.

Away from Turf Paradise, Hartunian was suspended Sept. 17 by New Mexico stewards because of a dispute over the payment of purse winnings to the young co-owner of one of his horses. According to the ruling reported by Paulick Report, Hartunian did not pay $3,467 he owed to Austin Evans, 14, for a share of a March 30 race win at Sunland Park. Evans is the son of trainer Justin Evans.

Hartunian runs Landmark LA Capital Group, which owns apartment buildings and condominiums in Southern California. His Rockingham Ranch most notably campaigned champion sprinters Stormy Liberal and Roy H with co-owner David Bernsen. Trained by Peter Miller, the two geldings combined for four Breeders’ Cup wins and three Eclipse Awards in 2017 and 2018.

A horse owner and breeder, Ludt, 61, has been a senior-level racing executive making stops the last two decades at Vinery Farms, Santa Anita, Phoenix Thoroughbreds, the Horseco technology company and Diamond100 Racing. More recently Ludt was in charge of the National Thoroughbred League, which appeared to go out of business this year shortly after he left to work for Hartunian.

The racing commission is scheduled to meet Thursday. No agenda was posted Tuesday morning.

Asked how measured optimism had turned sour so quickly, Gessmann said, “I’m not sure. I really don’t know. That’s Gary and Tom’s story to tell, I guess.”