Bay Meadows Fair
Bay Meadows is a horse racing track in San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
History
Bay Meadows Racecourse is the longest continually operating thoroughbred racetrack in California, having been founded in 1934. The innovative William P. Kyne introduced pari-mutuel wagering, the popular Daily Double, the first all-enclosed starting gate, the totalizator board and the photo-finish camera at Bay Meadows.
The Bay Meadows Handicap is the longest continually run stakes event in California, having been started in 1937. The track survived during World War II and generated more than $4 million for War Relief projects during the war years.
Bay Meadows’ racing season begins in August with the San Mateo County Fair portion of the meet, which runs two weeks. This is followed by a short break of a few days; until recently this break avoided conflict with the first week-and-a-half of the California State Fair horse race meet. Racing picks up again on Labor Day Weekend (or thereabouts) with the main throroughbred meet, which is split into two parts–one in the fall, the other in the spring/early summer (Golden Gate Fields’ meet takes place in the interim in the winter/early spring).
Throughout its history, Bay Meadows has also hosted harness and quarter horse racing meets, but because of the lack of financial viability these meets currently do not run. Bay Meadows is currently focusing exclusively on thoroughbred racing.
There has been talk within the past decade of demolishing Bay Meadows due to plans of building an entirely new race track near Dixon, California to replace the San Mateo race track. As these plans are still in development, Bay Meadows remains open on a year-by-year case basis, with the exact date of final closure uncertain. The Bay Meadows Phase II Specific Plan Amendment was adopted by the city council of the city of San Mateo on November 7, 2005 . The plan calls for 1.25 million square feet of office space, 1,250 residential units, 150,000 square feet of retail space, and 15 acres of public parks, as well as a rebuilt Hillsdale Caltrain station near the site of the old Bay Meadows Caltrain station.
On December 1, 2006, jockey Russell Baze won the fourth race to pass Laffit Pincay Jr as the winningest rider in thoroughbred horse racing.
Closing of Bay Meadows
After the track failed to acquire a 2-year extension of the deadline to replace its dirt oval with an artificial surface for the safety of the horses, it was announced that Bay Meadows may close November 4, 2007 immediately following its summer-fall season. However, in June of 2007, President Jack Liebau indicated he would seek dates for 2008 if they were to his liking.
Physical attributes
Bay Meadows has a one mile dirt oval and a seven furlong turf oval. The track has a total seating capacity of 12,000 and has stabling for 900 horses on site.
