AB 1074: Horse racing.

The Horse Racing Law vests the California Horse Racing Board with jurisdiction and supervision over horse racing meetings in the state. The Horse Racing Law requires the board to issue licenses to associations and fairs that participate in horse racing meetings with parimutuel wagering and to allocate racing dates to those associations and fairs in accordance with that law. The Horse Racing law authorizes the board to issue a license to an association or a fair to conduct a horse racing meeting in accordance with its provisions at the track specified in the written application, as specified. Under the Horse Racing Law, the board may allocate racing weeks to an applicant, subject to specified limitations, and specify the racing days, dates, and hours for horse racing meetings that will be in the public interest and will subserve the purposes of that law. The Horse Racing Law requires the board to make allocations of racing weeks as it deems appropriate and specifies the maximum number of racing weeks that may be allocated for horse racing other than at fairs, including, for thoroughbred racing, a maximum of 44 weeks per year of racing weeks in the northern zone and a maximum of 49 weeks per year in the combined central and southern zones.

If the board does not license a thoroughbred race meet to be conducted by a racing association at a racetrack located in a specified location in the northern zone after July 1, 2024, this bill would deem a thoroughbred racing association, or racing fair, licensed to meet in the southern or central zone to be operating in the northern zone during certain racing weeks for the purpose of conducting all permissible forms of wagering in the northern zone and making and receiving required distributions from those wagers. The bill would require mandatory distributions to be made in accordance with requirements applicable to the northern zone, as specified, and would require amounts generated for purses and commissions to be distributed in accordance with prescribed requirements.

The Horse Racing Law authorizes the board to permit fairs to operate satellite wagering facilities at their fairgrounds, under certain conditions. In addition, the Horse Racing Law permits any fair in the Counties of Kern or Shasta, with the approval of the Department of Food and Agriculture and the authorization of the board, to operate one satellite wagering facility within the boundaries of the fair, as specified.

This bill would permit any fair in the County of Stanislaus, with the approval of the Department of Food and Agriculture and the authorization of the board, to operate one satellite wagering facility within the boundaries of the fair, on the same conditions as apply in the Counties of Kern and Shasta.