Three-Year Deal On The Horizon For Arizona Horsemen, Turf Paradise
Horsemen in Arizona have come to an agreement with track management at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz., that would provide consistent racing seasons through 2027. The agreement is contingent on Turf Paradise being granted a permit renewal by the Arizona Racing Commission – the application paperwork for which is in process, according to track owner Jerry Simms.
Simms indicated at a regularly-scheduled commission meeting on May 10 that track management expects to begin work on a number of summer maintenance projects now that the regular race meet has concluded, including servicing tractors and other surface machinery.
Horses break from the starting gate at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz.
Coady Photography
Darrell Haire, representative of the Jockeys’ Guild voiced safety concerns about the track, telling commissioners that there is deferred maintenance and the machinery used on the surface is old and breaks down frequently – a point Simms disputed, claiming the tractors aren’t worked hard enough to stress them.
Also at Friday’s meeting, equine medical director Dr. Sue Gale gave final safety figures for the meet, which had a delayed start. The track saw roughly 4,000 entries and about 3,500 starts, including 711 Quarter Horse starts and 2,836 Thoroughbreds. Quarter Horses saw no fatalities in racing or training. There were four Thoroughbred racing fatalities, all due to musculoskeletal injury.
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Gale said this brought the track’s Thoroughbred fatality rate to 1.41 deaths per 1,000 starts – which isn’t too far off the 2023 national average of 1.32.
“This is a tremendous improvement on previous years,” she said. “We’ve almost always been over two per 1,000 starts … I credit the efforts on everyone’s part – the veterinary staff and their attentiveness to the welfare of the horses, as well as the horsemen themselves and track management and maintenance.”
Gale said that 99 percent of horses were pre-race examined this meet – also a significant improvement over previous meets, and due to the availability of additional veterinarians.
Some 16 percent of scratches across the meet were due to the results of pre-race examinations. About 13 percent of claims were voided due to unsoundness or other medical issues.
Previously, meets at Turf Paradise had no void claim policy for horses who cooled out lame following a claiming race. In fact, Arizona officials fought against having void claim rules in place, posting notices around Turf Paradise in late 2022 indicating that they would not honor any void claim rules. Both void claim requirements and pre-race examinations are now mandated by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
