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2 years ago

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  • Associated Press

Jul 16, 2023, 07:22 PM ET

It’s the end of an era for Northern California horse racing.

Golden Gate Fields will permanently close after its final racing date later this year at the San Francisco Bay area horse track.

The track’s owner, The Stronach Group, said Sunday it will “double down” on its racing at Santa Anita and training at San Luis Rey Downs in Southern California.

After the Golden Gate Fields meet ends, The Stronach Group said it will focus on moving horses from the Bay Area to Arcadia, with a goal of increasing field sizes and adding a fourth day of racing to the weekly schedule at Santa Anita beginning in January.

“The Stronach Group remains steadfastly committed to racing in California,” company CEO and president Belinda Stronach said in a statement.

“Focusing on Santa Anita Park and San Luis Rey Downs as state-of-the-art racing and training facilities that offer enhanced program quality, increased race days, expanded wagering opportunities, and premier hospitality and entertainment experiences is vital to ensuring that California racing can continue to compete and thrive on a national level,” she said.

Stronach said the company realizes its decision to close the Bay Area track will have “profound effects” on employees, owners, trainers, jockeys and stable workers there. She said the company is committed to honoring labor obligations.

The company said it would work with industry groups in California, as well as Los Alamitos racetrack in Orange County and Del Mar north of San Diego, in relocating horses and employees to Southern California.

“The ramifications of this Stronach decision will be far-reaching and long-lasting,” Alan Balch, executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, said in a statement. “They will include, we believe, a great many unintended and mainly detrimental consequences for all of racing and Thoroughbred breeding throughout California and the West, including in Southern California. We can only hope that we are entirely wrong.”

Scott Chaney, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, noted that Golden Gate Fields has been racing nine months out of the year and the board will begin discussing allocating those racing dates in August for 2024.

“I am acutely aware of the human impact of the closure — be they CHRB employees, CHRB contractors, licensees, and, of course, Golden Gate employees — and I will be working hard to ameliorate any negative consequences and to create job and role opportunities,” Chaney said.

The Stronach Group purchased the track in 2011.

Golden Gate Fields, which straddles the cities of Albany and Berkeley along the shore of the San Francisco Bay, opened in 1941.

With the start of World War II, the U.S. Navy took over the property for storage of landing craft that was to be used in the Pacific theater. After the war ended, racing returned to the site.

Among the horses that competed at Golden Gate Fields was 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation, John Henry, Shared Belief, and come-from-behind specialist Silky Sullivan, who is buried in the track’s infield.

The track was immortalized in book and movie form. In Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road,” Sal Paradise visits the track with his friend, who loses all their money.

In the 1997 movie “Metro” starring Eddie Murphy, his character visits the track to gamble and blames jockey Russell Baze for losing his money.

Retired Hall of Famer Baze won his 10,000th career race at Golden Gate Fields in 2008. He earned 54 riding titles and won 5,765 races there during his career.

The closure will leave Northern California without a major racetrack. Bay Meadows, which opened in 1934, shut down and was turned over to developers in 2008.

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Bruins say Lindholm to be sidelined a few weeks

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4 hours ago

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November 2, 2025

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Bruins say Lindholm to be sidelined a few weeks

  • Associated Press

Oct 31, 2025, 07:31 PM ET

BOSTON — Bruins center Elias Lindholm will miss at least a few weeks because of a lower-body injury, coach Marco Sturm said Friday.

Lindholm was helped off the ice after a collision with Buffalo‘s Jordan Greenway in the Bruins’ 4-3 overtime victory Thursday. Lindholm, 30, has nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 13 games.

Marat Khusnutdinov, who scored the overtime winner against the Sabres, is set to center Boston’s top line against Carolina on Saturday. The Russian is in his first full season with Boston. He has a goal and an assist in eight games.

The Bruins also will be without defenseman Jordan Harris for at least two months after a procedure to repair a right ankle fracture. Harris was injured in a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday.

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Devils, goalie Markstrom agree to 2-year extension

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4 hours ago

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November 2, 2025

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Devils, goalie Markstrom agree to 2-year extension

The New Jersey Devils agreed to a two-year extension with goalie Jacob Markstrom on Friday, with an average annual value of $6 million.

Markstrom, 35, was entering the final year of his contract, which had the same cap hit. This move helps the Devils lock in a three-year window in which they believe their group can contend.

The Swedish-born goaltender was a massive acquisition for the Devils in June 2024 as New Jersey traded defenseman Kevin Bahl and a first-round pick to the Calgary Flames to secure its new franchise backstop and stabilize the team.

The Devils’ brain trust, including general manager Tom Fitzgerald and executive vice president of hockey operations Martin Brodeur, has loved having Markstrom in the organization. Markstrom, a big but agile goaltender at 6-foot-6, 205 pounds, has also formed a strong bond with goaltending partner Jake Allen.

The Devils are 8-3-0 before Saturday’s road game against the Los Angeles Kings. Markstrom hasn’t been his strongest, going 2-2-0 with a 5.13 goals-against average and an .830 save percentage in four appearances. He has also been sidelined briefly by injury.

However, the Devils are banking on his body of work, including his spectacular play in last year’s first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes. Markstrom posted a .911 save percentage, but New Jersey, which was severely hobbled by injuries, lost to Carolina in five games.

Markstrom has finished top five in Vezina Trophy voting twice in his career and has gone 28-18-6 in the past year-plus with the Devils, including a 2.67 GAA and four shutouts in 53 games. A 2008 second-round pick of Florida, Markstrom has appeared in 538 games with the Panthers, Canucks, Flames and Devils. He has a .908 career save percentage.

The Devils sought a shorter-term deal but also wanted to capitalize on a thin goaltending market. Allen, also 35, is signed through 2030.

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Marchand nets ‘special’ goal for pal’s late daughter

Published

4 hours ago

on

November 2, 2025

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Marchand nets 'special' goal for pal's late daughter

  • Associated Press

Nov 1, 2025, 08:45 PM ET

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand put the puck in the back of the net for the Florida Panthers on Saturday night then pointed a finger in the air and looked to the sky.

The reason was obvious.

This goal was for Selah.

Marchand’s sixth goal of this season and the 430th of his career was unlike any other. It came three days after he was home in Nova Scotia paying tribute to the life of 10-year-old Selah Panacci-MacCallum — the daughter of his close friend JP MacCallum. Selah died Oct. 24 of adrenal cortical carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.

“The hockey gods always come through,” Marchand told the Panthers’ broadcast after the second period in an interview aired throughout the arena. “It was a really, really tough week. That’s a special one to get for Selah.”

Marchand missed Florida’s game Tuesday against the visiting Anaheim Ducks to be with his friend’s family in Nova Scotia and did so with the Panthers’ blessing. Marchand filled in for JP MacCallum as the coach of the under-18 March and Mill Co. Hunters in Halifax on Wednesday night; Marchand co-owns that team.

That game Wednesday was a fundraiser for the MacCallum family.

“We fully appreciate the things that are most important, and hockey’s very, very important,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said earlier Saturday. “But there’s some things that just easily outweigh it, and they need to be dealt with. And what he’s going through is real.

“There’s things that just trump the game of hockey.”

Marchand said his bond with JP MacCallum goes back for many years and that he simply had to make the long trip home to pay tribute to Selah.

“She lived life to the fullest,” Marchand said during Saturday’s in-game interview. “And walking away from the week, I have such a new perspective on life and what it all means and how precious it is and how precious time is. It’s every day. It’s not just a game. It’s not just a sport. It’s how we live every single day, and she lived to the fullest.

“To carry on her memory, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to live every day to the fullest, enjoy it, and we’re not going to take it for granted.”

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