BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 763|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 763
Author: Chesbro (D), et al
Amended: 7/9/09 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL ORG. COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/9/09
AYES: Wright, Harman, Benoit, Calderon, Denham, Negrete
McLeod, Padilla, Wiggins, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Florez, Oropeza, Wyland, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/11/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Horse racing: Humboldt County Fair
SOURCE : Humboldt County Fair Association
DIGEST : This bill allows the Humboldt County Fair to
import and accept wagers on up to eight races per day from
out-of-state locations and allows the Del Mar Thoroughbred
Club to import and accept wagers on an additional eight
races per day from out-of-state locations during the period
that the Humboldt County Fair is conducting a live race
meet.
Senate Floor Amendments of 7/9/09 (1) make a number of
technical and conforming changes to the Horse Racing Law to
reflect the closure of Bay Meadows Race Course in August
2008, and the enactment of SB 16XX (Ashburn), Chapter 12,
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Statutes of 2009-10, Second Extraordinary Session, and (2)
make whole the Humboldt County Fair (HCF) as it relates to
past commissions received due to being overlapped by
another fair or racing association in the Northern zone.
The amendments are intended to allow HCF to continue to
offer live racing concurrently with its annual fair and to
offer its patrons opportunities to watch and wager on
simulcast wagering.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that the California
Horse Racing Board (CHRB) regulate the various forms of
horse racing authorized in this state.
Existing law limits the number of races that may be
imported by a thoroughbred association or fair to no more
than 32 races per day on days when live thoroughbred or
fair racing is being conducted in this state, with
specified exceptions. Provides that wagering on these
races may occur without the consent of the horsemen/women
participating in the meet, and without regard to the amount
of purses involved with the races.
Existing law exempts from that 32-race per day limit races
imported that are part of the race card of certain
prominent races, including the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky
Oaks, the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes, the Jockey
Club Gold Cup, the Breeders' Cup, the Travers Stakes, or
the Haskell Invitational.
Existing law authorizes a thoroughbred racing association
or fair to import out-of-country races during the calendar
period the association or fair is conducting a race
meeting. Limits the total number of out-of-country
thoroughbred races on which wagers are allowed to be
accepted statewide in any given year to no more than the
number of out-of-country races that were imported and on
which wagers were accepted in 1998. Provides that wagering
on these races may occur without the consent of the
horsemen/horsewomen participating in the meet.
Existing law provides CHRB is authorized to permit a
harness or quarter horse association conducting a race
meeting to accept wagers on the results of up to eight
out-of-state or out-of-country harness or quarter horse
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races per day, if specified conditions are met. If only
one breed is being raced on a given day, the racing
association conducting live racing may import those races
that would otherwise be simulcast by the association that
is not racing, as specified.
Existing law authorizes a licensed harness racing
association that is conducting a live racing meeting in
this state to accept wagers on the full card of races
conducted by another racing association on the day that
other association conducts the Breeder's Crown Stakes, the
Meadowlands Pace, the Hambletonian, or the North American
Cup.
This bill:
1. Provides that, in addition to the authorization to
accept wagers on out-of-state and out-of-country races
authorized by current law, during calendar periods when
a thoroughbred association or fair in the northern zone
and the HCF simultaneously conduct live race meetings,
HCF and a thoroughbred association in the southern zone
when conducting a live race meeting and only on days in
which live races are being run, may accept wagers on the
results of not more than eight out-of-state thoroughbred
horse races, if all of the following conditions are met:
A. HCF conducts at least six live races.
B. HCF and the thoroughbred association in the
southern zone accept wagers only on out-of-state
thoroughbred races that commence before 4:30 p.m.,
Pacific Standard Time.
2. Allows HCF to contract with the thoroughbred association
or fair in the southern zone to distribute the signal
statewide on its behalf.
3. Deletes reference to the San Mateo County Fair from
Section 19601.2 of the Business and Professions Code of
the Horse Racing Law. This change reflects the fact
that Bay Meadows Race Course, which was the location for
the San Mateo County Fair racing meet, is closed, has
been razed, and will no longer operate a racing meet
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that runs concurrently (overlaps) with another racing
meet in the Northern zone.
4. Strikes reference to license fees on races at HCF and on
imported races, which are consistent with the enactment
of SB 16XX of 2009 which eliminates license fees for the
support of the network of California fairs.
5. Authorizes .75% deduction from purses and commissions
(rather than a .75% deduction from license fees, which
was the case before the enactment of SB 16XX of 2009)
generated from the wagering handle on imported races at
the host track in Northern California to support HCF
during the time HCF runs its racing meet and is
overlapped by the host track.
6. Strikes reference to the Fresno District Fair which used
to run its racing meet concurrently with the now defunct
San Mateo County Fair's racing meet.
7. Becomes effective immediately upon enactment in order to
alleviate economic uncertainty for HCF, preserve jobs,
ensure that live horse racing continues in Humboldt
County each year, and for this act to apply to the 2009
racing season.
Comments
With the passage of SB 16XX of 2009, beginning on July 1,
2009, and annually, thereafter, $32 million shall be
appropriated from the state's General Fund and paid into
the Fair and Exposition Fund for the financial support of
the network of California fairs. This financial support
for the fairs from the General Fund is in lieu of license
fees from wagers on horse racing which had funded the fairs
for over 75 years.
Since license fees will no longer be generated on
out-of-zone, out-of-state, and out-of-county wagers, this
bill is needed to make the HCF whole as it relates to the
revenue streams received by HCF prior to the enactment of
SB 16XX of 2009. In lieu of the .75 percent of license
fees, HCF will now receive .75 percent of the handle from
purses and commissions generated by the fair or racing
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association that maintains the privilege of being the host
in Northern California of all imported race signals during
the time in which its racing meet overlaps with HCF's
racing meet.
This bill allows HCF to continue its racing meet during the
time it operates its fair as well as offer its patrons
opportunities to watch and wager on simulcast races.
NOTE: Please refer to the Senate Governmental
Organization Committee analysis for additional
background information.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/10/09)
Humboldt County Fair Association (source)
California Authority of Racing Fairs
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The bill's sponsor, the Humboldt
County Fair Association, is a nonprofit organization that
has served as the management arm of the annual HCF in
Ferndale for 114 years. Horse racing has been an integral
and essential part of HCF since its inception in 1896. Due
to recent and dramatic changes in horse racing, however,
the fair faces the very real possibility of losing this
important activity.
HCF states, "The new revenues generated from this bill
would be essential to our bottom-line and would provide the
basis for continuing with the great tradition of horse
racing at the fair to be enjoyed by generations to come."
HCF further states that revenues derived from this bill
will not only support the fair, but the breeding, owning
and racing of California horses and mules while
supplementing the existing breeding incentive programs.
This bill allows HCF to import up to eight out-of-state
races, which is similar to the right held by harness or
quarter horse associations while operating a CHRB
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sanctioned live racing meet.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight,
Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A.
Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price, Salas,
Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra
Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran,
Villines, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ruskin, Yamada
TSM:mw 7/13/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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