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Old 04-30-2020, 11:01 AM   #44
dilanesp
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 8,798
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Asaro View Post
Santa Anita making plans for May 15, still needs county approval

https://www.drf.com/news/santa-anita...ounty-approval
The fact that county officials are taking so long is probably an indicator that they don't buy the industry's basic argument, i.e., that there's some special reason having to do with the industry's employment of thousands of people and its care for horses, that justifies reopening before other businesses can reopen.

Instead, they are not treating this with any urgency. They are basically judging racing as no different than any other business arguing its status as an "essential" business.

The worst case scenario is even worse than that, by the way- that basically the officials don't really buy horse racing's social distancing arguments and won't reopen the track until they start reopening restaurants and other businesses.

As of now, the county officials are saying very little publicly. Obviously, we don't know what the racetrack officials are really hearing behind closed doors. But at the very least, this has been slow-walked. Santa Anita had its protocols written a couple of weeks ago. We would have seen a reopening announcement by now from the county if it was just a matter of getting the protocol right.

(One other thing. The horse racing media is paying too much attention to the Board of Supervisors, and how they are being lobbied and protested. Yes, ultimately, they could overrule the county health officials. In theory. In practice, Kathryn Barger wants to remain an elected official, and that means she's risk averse. If she overrules her health officials and guesses wrong, it's a career ender. If she sticks with their advice, whatever it is, she can say she did her job and relied on the best advice.

Santa Anita has to convince the County health department. Insiders may not like that because it probably has a more skeptical attitude about racing than the Board of Supes does, but at the end of the day there isn't going to be an opening of the track over the objection of the health department.)
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