I attended a meeting this week at Retama Park addressing the issue of training facility licenses and how they pertain to Class 1 tracks.
Historically, racetracks have functioned as training facilities by virtue of holding a racetrack license with the Texas Racing Commission. As the rules currently read, any facility that wishes to hold official works must be licensed specifically as a training facility. This applies whether or not a race meet is currently taking place. This means that all Texas racetracks are not in compliance with the rules as they now read.
There was much discussion on how the rules should read but until any changes can be implemented, the situation as it now stands needs to be addressed.
My concern at the meeting, and I stressed that I felt this should be a top priority of the Commission, is to find a way to hold official works now until the rules issues are resolved, which is a fairly lengthy process.
Today’s meeting only concerned training at Retama Park. The Commission agreed to try to find an interim solution that would allow regular training as in previous years and also allow the track to conduct official works a few days each month.
In order to have adequate Commission staff on site, these official works would need to take place on days when there is not live racing at another Texas track. Retama Park indicated that Wednesdays might be a good option.
The Commission and Retama Park would be interested in knowing, from the Thoroughbred side of things, an approximate number of horses coming in for official works and which day(s)s would be best for official works between now and March 1st.
If you are interested in having official works at Retama Park, please send an email ASAP to maryr@texasthoroughbred.com with your name and contact information, including the number of horses you might bring or stable there if this option becomes viable.
Regards,
Tracy Sheffield