The track was set on 140 acres (0.57km2) of land in the cities of Albany and Berkeley. Golden Gate Fields' facilities included a one-mile (1,609 m) synthetic track and a turf course measuring 9/10 of a mile, or 7 furlongs plus 132 feet (1,448 m), stalls for 1,420 horses, a main grandstand with seating for about 8,000 customers, a clubhouse with seating for about 5,200 customers, a Turf Club with seating for about 1,500 customers and parking for over 8,500 cars. The synthetic track was called Tapeta and was installed in the summer of 2007.
On July 16, 2023, The Stronach Group announced that Golden Gate Fields would close at the end of the 2023 race meet.[1] The closing was later delayed tentatively until June 2024.[2]
On June 9, 2024, Golden Gate Fields staged its final card, ending an 83-year run. A total of 5,936 people came to say farewell, with $3,057,912 wagered on the eight races by on-track patrons and simulcast/advance-deposit wagering players.
History
Golden Gate Fields racetrack was situated on a tract of land bordered on the west by Fleming Point, a rocky promontory which lies on the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay. On the north, it is bordered by the Albany Bulb, Albany Beach and Albany Plateau, undeveloped terrain over a former landfill, owned by the City of Albany. To the east is Interstate 80 and to the south, the Berkeley Meadow. This tract lies on what was once a part of the slough into which three creeks drain: Schoolhouse Creek, Codornices Creek and Marin Creek. The tract had originally been that portion of the Rancho San Antonio owned by José Domingo Peralta. He sold it in July 1852 to John Fleming, who used it as a transhipment point for sending his cattle across the bay to San Francisco for slaughter and processing. Later in the 19th century, it was the site of the Giant Powder Company, a manufacturer of dynamite and nitroglycerin. Between 1879 and 1892, the plant blew up twice.
Competitive horse racing in this part of the East Bay originated with the Oakland Trotting Track about 2 miles south of the site of Golden Gate Fields, in what is now Emeryville. The Oakland Trotting Track was open from 1871 until it was forced to close in 1911 when the state banned horse racing. A fire in 1915 destroyed what remained of its structures. In 1933, the state repealed the ban on horse racing.[3]
Just before World War II, Golden Gate Fields built its grandstand up against the eastern slope of Fleming Point, and adjacent marshland was filled in for the track. The inaugural meet was on February 1, 1941. In the period just before the war, the track was used as the scene of the crime central to the plot of the movie Shadow of the Thin Man.
With the onset of World War II, the United States Navy took over the property as the Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot, Albany for storing hundreds of landing craft destined for use in the Pacific theater.[4] After the war, Golden Gate Fields resumed horse racing.
Golden Gate Fields was owned and managed for 25 years by San Francisco foreign car importer and horseman Kjell Qvale. In 1989, Golden Gate Fields was acquired by UK-based Ladbroke Racing.[5] It was later acquired in 1999 by Magna Entertainment Corp., as Ladbroke wanted to divest of its non-European holdings. In March 2009, Magna filed for bankruptcy. The Stronach Group, the last owners, acquired Golden Gate Fields on July 3, 2011.
Golden Gate Fields made history in 2016 when it hired 29-year-old Angela Hermann as its track announcer, succeeding Michael Wrona. Hermann was the first full-time female race caller in the United States since Ann Elliott worked in the 1960s at Jefferson Downs near New Orleans.[6][7]
Horses and jockeys before a race at Golden Gate Fields
In 1950, Citation and Noor met in the Golden Gate Handicap. The English-bred Noor beat the great Triple Crown winner Citation, prompting Citation's rider, Steve Brooks, to say, "We just can't beat that horse."
In 1957, the horse Silky Sullivan came to the track and with him came the excitement that followed him throughout his life. Until the death of Lost in the Fog, he was also the only horse to be buried in the infield. Lost in the Fog's plaque was the third to be placed at Golden Gate Fields, near the one for Silky Sullivan and that for Bill Shoemaker.
The infield turf course was opened on February 22, 1972.
In 1984, the great geldingJohn Henry set a course record winning the Golden Gate Handicap.
Before his death in 2006, Lost in the Fog was based here. On September 17, 2006, he was euthanized due to inoperable tumors found on his spleen and along his spine. Prior to his early death, Lost in the Fog ran three races at his home base— winning twice and placing once. On September 30, 2006, Golden Gate Fields held a celebration of his life.
During the summer of 2007, the racetrack installed a polymer synthetic racing surface as mandated by the California Horse Racing Board. The Tapeta Footings all-weather surface was designed to make racing safer for both horses and riders.
On February 1, 2008, on board the horse Two Step Cat, Russell Baze got his 10,000th career win as a jockey. Baze won 54 riding titles and a total of 5,765 races at Golden Gate Fields during his career.[8]
With the loss of Bay Meadows to developers in 2008, Golden Gate Fields became Northern California's only major racetrack (aside from the racetracks associated with the summer fair circuit). The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) sets the specific racing dates each year, but there is customarily a long winter/spring meet running from late December to mid-June, and a fall meet running from mid-October to mid-December.[10] Starting in 2010, a summer meet was added with dates based around the summer fair circuit.[11] On June 15, 2016, the CHRB presented a proposed 2017 calendar that would eliminate the summer meet.[12]
Closure announcement
On July 16, 2023, Golden Gate Fields owners The Stronach Group announced that 2023 would be the last year of racing at Golden Gate Fields. In their announcement, The Stronach Group president and chief executive Belinda Stronach said that the future success of California racing "depends on a business model that encourages investment in Southern California," referring to Santa Anita Park and the San Luis Rey Downs training facility.[13] The leaders of groups representing owners and trainers of thoroughbred horses in California, including the California Thoroughbred Trainers and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, expressed disappointment following The Stronach Group's announcement.[1]
The last day of thoroughbred racing at Golden Gate Fields was scheduled to take place on December 18, 2023.[1] During a committee meeting of the California Horse Racing Board in August 2023, the Thoroughbred Owners of California proposed a plan to keep Golden Gate Fields open until the following summer in an effort to provide short-term continuity for thoroughbred racing in the region. Aidan Butler, CEO of 1/ST Racing (parent company of The Stronach Group), said afterward that a winter-spring meet at Golden Gate in 2024 would be "completely contingent on the outcome of a sitdown."[14] The following month, it was announced that the closing of Golden Gate Fields would be tentatively postponed until June 2024.[2] The final day at Golden Gate Fields was June 9, 2024; the final race was won by Ireland's Adelie with jockey Assael Espinoza aboard.
Transportation
AC Transit, the local public transit agency, provided a seasonal bus service, line 304, between the track and North Berkeley BART station until 2008.[15] The track was also accessible from the Gilman Street and Albany exits of the Eastshore Freeway, as well as from adjacent city streets. The San Francisco Bay Trail, a bicycle and walking path passes between the bay and the track site.[16] In 2009, East Shore Charter Lines was contracted to provide the racetrack with a new free service from the BART station.[17]
Racing events
The following Graded events were held at Golden Gate Fields in 2020.
Work the Crowd, 4-year-olds and up, fillies and mares (Cal-breds), 1 1/16 miles. $75,000 added
Pop culture references
Punk rock band Rancid wrote and performed the song "GGF", about lead singer Tim Armstrong's childhood near Golden Gate Fields, on their 2000 self-titled album.
Golden Gate Fields was featured in the Rancid video "Last One to Die".
In On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Sal Paradise visits Golden Gate Fields with his friend Remi Boncœur, who loses all their money before the seventh race.
In the movie Metro starring Eddie Murphy and Michael Rapaport, Murphy's character is seen at Golden Gate Fields betting on a race and blaming jockey Russell Baze for losing his money.
Notes and references
A Selective History of the Codornices-University Village..., by Warren and Catherine Lee, Imprint (Albuquerque, N.M.): Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company Enterprises, Ltd., (2000).
Citation was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the eighth winner of the American Triple Crown. He won 16 consecutive stakes races and was the first horse in history to win US$1 million.
Lone Star Park is a horse racing track and entertainment destination located 1⁄2 mile north of Interstate 30 on Belt Line Road in Grand Prairie, Texas. Lone Star Park has two live racing seasons every year; the spring Thoroughbred season generally runs from early April through mid-July, and the Fall Meeting of Champions generally runs from early September through mid-November.
Russell Avery Baze is a retired Canadian-American horse racing jockey. He holds the record for the most race wins in North American horse racing history, and is a member of the United States Racing Hall of Fame and the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame.
Bay Meadows was a horse racing track in San Mateo, California from 1934 until 2008, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
The El Camino Real Derby is a Listed American Thoroughbred horse race held in February at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, California. The race is open to three-year-olds willing to race one and one-eighth miles on Tapeta, a synthetic racing surface.
Shannon (1941–1955), named Shannon II in America, was an outstanding Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He created new racecourse records in Australia before he was sold to an American buyer who exported him to California in 1948. There Shannon equalled the world record of 1:473⁄5 for the nine furlongs in winning the Forty Niner Handicap Stakes, then one week later equalled the world record of 1:594⁄5 for a mile and a quarter. Shannon was named the 1948 American Champion Older Male Horse. At stud in America he proved to be a good sire.
The Silky Sullivan Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run each year at Golden Gate Fields in the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for the "Heart Attack Horse," the great closer Silky Sullivan, the race was a mile and an eighth, or 9 furlong Grade III turf race——run on grass——with a purse of $100,000 which it has retained. It is open to males or females three years of age, and runs at a distance of a mile and a sixteenth.
The Golden Gate Handicap is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for horses age three and older over a distance of one and one sixteenth miles with handicap conditions on the Tapeta, a synthetic racing surface held annually in November at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, California. The event offers a purse of US$100,000.
The Tiburon Handicap is an American Thoroughbred ungraded stakes race for three-year-old fillies run early each year at Golden Gate Fields. Set at a distance of six furlongs, the sprint now offers a purse of $75,000.
The Lost in the Fog Stakes was an American ungraded Thoroughbred horse race held at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, California. It was named in honor of Lost in the Fog, the brilliant sprinter who made his name between 2004 and 2006 before dying of lymphoma at age four.
The All American Stakes is a Listed American Thoroughbred race for horses three-years-old and older over a distance of one mile on the turf at Golden Gate Fields, Berkeley, California. It currently offers a purse of $100,000.
Jerry Hollendorfer is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer whose notable horses include Eclipse Award winners Blind Luck, Shared Belief and Songbird. He has the most wins in the history of Northern California race horse trainers. In 2011, he was inducted into the US Racing Hall of Fame.
John W. Sadler is an American horse trainer in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. He currently has over 2,600 race wins, including the 2018 Breeders' Cup Classic with Accelerate, who was subsequently named American Horse of the Year. He has won multiple training titles at Santa Anita Park, Del Mar and the now defunct Hollywood Park. Sadler trained Flightline, the winner of the 2022 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Martin Garcia is a Mexican jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing based in Southern California.
The California Oaks is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in February at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, California. Open to three-year-old fillies, it is contested on Tapeta Footings synthetic dirt over a distance of a mile and a sixteenth.
The Golden Gate Fields Turf Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, California. The race was open to horses four-year-olds and up willing to race one and three-eighth miles on the turf and offered a purse of $250,000 at its last running.
Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, is a thoroughbred racino in Austintown, Ohio. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn Entertainment.
The Yerba Buena Stakes is a discontinued race for Thoroughbred fillies and mares age three and older. It was run on turf at Golden Gate Fields race track in Albany, California from 1973 through 2000 and again from 2005 through 2009. Between 2001 through 2004 the race was hosted by Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California.
The Fall Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York from 1894 thru 1909 for horses of either sex age three and older. For easier identification purposes, the race is sometimes referred to as the Coney Island Fall Handicap. For its first two editions, the Fall Handicap was run on the track's short futurity course at 5¾ furlongs then for the next twelve runnings at 6 furlongs and the final two years at 6½ furlongs. The Fall Handicap was the first of the track's autumn serials, preceding the Ocean Handicap at 6½ furlongs and the Omnium Handicap at 1⅛ miles.
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