It’s the end of an era at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley. The race track is running its final races this weekend after more than 80 years.
“It's incredibly sad. It’s still hard to process, like it’s not real yet. There is so much history here,” race horse owner Frances Jefferson said.
Her five thoroughbreds have called Golden Gate Fields home for the past five years and she feels like her community is being uprooted
“There's a whole world here. The track is its own world, it's a bubble,” Jefferson said. “The people who live here are incredibly dedicated to the welfare of the sport of animals."
But horse advocate Samantha Faye is celebrating the closure.
“Horse racing is not worth the cruelty that it inflicts on animals,” she said.
Faye’s great-grandfather helped open the track more than eight decades ago as the mayor of Albany. But she said her family all feels strongly it's time to shut it down.
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“I know that if I could sit down with my great-grandfather, and explain to him all of the reasons why horse racing is no longer a viable business in a modern world and compassionate world, and not worth it,” Faye said.
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“These horses eat better than I do, they’re groom better than I groom, they’re maintained better, they exercise more than I do and they’re given a lot of love and attention,” said horse owner and trainer Howie Rubin.
He insists the animals are well cared for and loved and said this final weekend will be filled with emotion.
“This has become a home to so many people here when you uproot people's lives, which is happening, it’s painful, it hurts. It really does, it cuts to the core,” Rubin said.
The company that owns the track says its closure is a result of ongoing economic challenges of the racing industry.
In a statement the company said, “The legacy of this venue will live on in the stories of all those who have been part of its history.”
Jefferson’s horse Gross Profit still has one more race on Sunday and she’s going to relish every second.
“It’s our last hurrah. But hopefully we’ll go out with a bang,” she said.
