GOLDEN GATE FIELDS, CA — On bright June mornings at the end of training when a cool breeze is skimmed from the top of San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Fields suspends in midair.
The remaining horses gallop by almost silently, save for a sound like the ripple of a kite tugging at a string. Behind them, the infield water fountains shiver and hiss while above, western gulls turn and wheel on invisible wires. It’s a world contained–its shoulder braced against the whirring cogs of time, straining against the pull.
Then your eyes lift to the traffic crawling the I-580. Your ears adjust to the constant hum of cars headed to brunch dates and shopping trips and hikes up Mount Diablo. Even in its faded pomp, the yawning grandstand seems to call out to them proudly. “Look out your window! Come visit!” Every so often, one of the cars heeds the call. But few do–not anymore. In trying to pause the clock, the risk is that time gives up on you altogether.
“I always say, if you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all,” says a figure hunched over the rail at the entrance to the track, her grey hair swept back, cracked hands ingrained with dirt. She doesn’t want her name used. She’s tired, dejected.
This Sunday, The Stronach Group (TSG)-owned track will stage its very last race. And then the fate of hundreds of Northern California-based trainers, grooms, hotwalkers, breeders, exercise riders and jockeys could hinge on the success or failure of a 10-week meet this fall at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton about 35 miles away, depending on the route.
