Down the final stretch

Doris Johnson remembers Seabiscuit and a crowd of 40,000 cheering fans. Bernie Thurman recalls Kentucky Derby winner Majestic Prince, a copper-hued colt tipping off his future greatness. John Harris counts several stakes winners for his family farm spanning more than 30 years.

Bay Meadows created lasting memories for thousands of racing fans, giving a sense of place to frame priceless impressions that cemented their devotion to the sport.

Soon, memories will be all that's left of the 74-year-old San Mateo landmark.

"It's like an old friend who's dying," said Harris, who served as the track's chairman. "You hope you can spend more time with them before they're gone."

Today is closing day at Bay Meadows, the oldest continually operating thoroughbred racetrack in California. Except for 10 days of racing scheduled for August's San Mateo County Fair, this meet should be the last for the venerable track, which will be demolished to make way for redevelopment.

A turnout of 14,366 fans (the largest crowd in 16 years) came for one final Friday night program, with many more expected today. Saturday, the attendance just topped 4,500. Bay Meadows' average daily attendance is about 1,500.

No replacement is ready on Northern California's racing calendar, and no plans have advanced beyond talk. Existing fair facilities such as Cal Expo or Pleasanton's Alameda County Fairgrounds need $20 million or more in improvements – including installation of a safer synthetic main track and turf course – to accommodate a major thoroughbred meet.

"We're still weighing various components, from drainage to stalls," said Christopher Korby, the executive director of the California Authority of Racing Fairs, when asked to put a price tag on a plan for Pleasanton.

Because of its proximity to Bay Area-based horsemen and current track employees, the 150-year-old Alameda fair facility – the oldest one-mile track in the United States – is the front-runner to eventually assume the bulk of Bay Meadows' dates, but it needs a lot of work.

Industry leaders had counted on the construction of Dixon Downs, the $250 million state-of-the-art racing complex proposed by Magna Entertainment that was rejected last year by Dixon voters. Because Bay Meadows Land Co. officials would not commit to an absolute closing date, contingencies remained fuzzy.

Cal Expo could be a major beneficiary, absorbing at least part of Bay Meadows' 100-plus thoroughbred racing dates. But the state-owned facility, which operates a 160-night harness meet, lacks the funding for major improvements and is negotiating with the NBA for a potential new arena.

"In a perfect world, we would have thoroughbred racing during the day and harness on an inner track at night," Cal Expo racing director David Elliott said. "But who's going to pay for it? We can't afford to do it ourselves."

Cal Expo likely would pick up at least an extra week of thoroughbred racing in 2009 to add to its State Fair season. After a three-year absence, thoroughbred racing returns to Cal Expo this August for 11 days.

State racing officials recently heard possible scenarios for a 2009 calendar without Bay Meadows. Golden Gate Fields in Albany would absorb the bulk of the racing dates in addition to its 105-day schedule. Pleasanton might host two four-week meets, allowing it an exemption from California's synthetic track mandate. The rest of the dates could be spread among the other fair tracks.

But besides racing, Bay Meadows is home to about 1,000 horses in training year-round. Barns at Golden Gate are already full, and Pleasanton has about 600 stalls, many already occupied.

"A lot of things will change," said Harris, the vice chairman of the California Horse Racing Board. "The plans are all still up in the air. Even if they race at Golden Gate (most of the time), we need to still race somewhere else."

The future's uncertainty adds to the grief of losing the sport's longtime Bay Area cornerstone.

"There's five stages of loss: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness and acceptance," said Thurman, Bay Meadows' general manager. "In my job, I'm dealing with people in all these different stages at once."

Hundreds of employees as well as backstretch workers and horsemen depend on Bay Meadows. Many will move on with the racing dates.

"Some of us will be looking for new adventures," said Thurman, who started working at the track's gift shop while in college in 1976.

"For me, this has always been a magical place," said Thurman, who got hooked on Bay Meadows and racing as a child. "Once it's gone, maybe we'll realize what a treasure it was, and maybe people will try to keep another place open."

Friday, a group of neighborhood supporters that wants to save the track filed a lawsuit to block the demolition. Called Friends of Bay Meadows, the association contends that the site plan OK'd by San Mateo's City Council on April 21 strays too far from the environmental impact report approved by the city in 2005.

"These issues need to be addressed before the racetrack is torn down," said Linda Schinkel, among the Friends leaders, acknowledging the suit is a long shot.

Bay Meadows has been threatened since the 1990s. About 10 years ago, the horses moved into the infield in warehouse-like barns when the original backstretch was plowed under for commercial development.

Johnson, 87, worked at Bay Meadows for 49 years, mostly as the Turf Club's longtime hostess. Her husband, Tex Johnson, was a successful trainer. They saw Seabiscuit win the first two Bay Meadows Handicaps in 1937 and '38.

"The whole thing is sad, sad, sad," she said of Bay Meadows' closure. "We don't need more office buildings and condos. I wouldn't trade my experiences there for anything."

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