Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Oct. 24, 2024

A good Thursday morning to you all! Writing today once again from sunny Pleasanton, California and wanted to share a little bit about my first week here as I’m helping out calling the races here at Golden State Racing in Pleasanton. As most of you know, Golden Gate Fields closed down back in June. The Cal Fairs ran mostly their normal schedules with stops here in Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Ferndale, and of course the Big Fresno Fair. The super shortened version of this new meet is that the horsemen and racing people in Northern California want to continue racing up here as opposed to just everyone running in Southern California. Hence Golden State Racing at Pleasanton was born. They’re going to run three days a week throughout the fall until Dec. 15th. I believe the hope is then to continue a winter meet that would take the place of the old Golden Gate Fields meet that always started the day after Christmas along with Santa Anita. 

I’d never actually been to the track at Pleasanton or the city for that matter, even though I’ve been to the Bay Area probably 30 or 40 times in my life. So Pleasanton was my 75th track visit when I arrived, which unless I leave the country, I’m not sure if I’ll get to 100 as I’ve been to most of the tracks in the U.S. and Canada at this point that are still running. 

The city of Pleasanton is beautiful as are the surrounding towns of Livermore and Dublin. It’s inland a bit from the Bay so temperatures are generally warmer than San Francisco and Oakland. Opening weekend it was around 80 degrees both days and could not have been nicer. Just unreal weather. The opening day crowd was a bit larger than I was expecting, probably just shy of 2,000 people. The track is within the fairgrounds so parking and all that is done through the fairgrounds groups and you’ll generally have a little bit of a walk to get to the grandstand, but nothing crazy. The grandstand is open air and very clean and like most tracks, it has simulcast TVs going underneath the grandstand to play races from other tracks. 

The infield to me is one of the big highlights. There’s a nine hole Par 3 golf course in the infield as well as a small driving range. It reminded me a lot of how Portland Meadows infield was laid out because the golf course and the driving range were basically in the same spots. The driving range only goes 150 yards so I think it’s just wedges and nine irons for warm ups. The big water tower around the five-eighths pole is also a very unique part of the infield and is surrounded by a number of big trees, so there are a few moments where from up in the announcers booth the horses vanish behind them for a split second. 

Speaking of the announcers booth, it’s more the announcers section. Similar to Grants Pass Downs, I’m up in the perch with the stewards so even as I’m announcing the post parade or even the race, they’re right next to me talking and doing their job. It took me a couple of races to get used to having others in the same area as me during the race let alone talking and moving about, but I feel like I got used to it pretty quickly. The trees at the three-eighths pole and the turn for home obstruct my view for just a second or two, but for the most part the sight lines are quite good. The trickiest part was calling photo finishes, because our box kind of hovers right over the outer rail, so it feels like the horses are running right below you, which they are. It’s just very different from Colonial or Tampa which are set farther back. 

All in all it was a really fun first two days and a beautiful setting for racing. I hope to see some of you out here these next few weeks, but if not, put it on your track list!