{"id":327639,"date":"2025-08-08T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327639\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T10:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:33:10","slug":"turf-paradise-could-have-new-operator-in-coming-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327639\/","title":{"rendered":"Turf Paradise Could Have New Operator In Coming Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turf Paradise Could Have New Operator In Coming Months<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

California horse owner and real estate developer Gary Hartunian could soon be taking over as the operator of Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz., it was revealed during a special online meeting of the Arizona Racing Commission on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Turf Paradise owner Jerry Simms, who during the meeting was given conditional approval for a three-year permit to operate a race meet \u2013 contingent on completion by Oct. 1 of required repairs in the stable area and the rails on both the main dirt track and turf course \u2013 at first did not identify the potential new operator by name but said the person planned to lease the track for two years, then build a new track on a \u201cdifferent piece of property.\u201d It is believed the network of OTBs run by Turf Paradise would be part of the deal.<\/p>\n

Later in the meeting, the racing commission named Hartunian as the interested party, and said veteran industry executive Tom Ludt would seek approval from the regulatory board to become the track\u2019s new general manager.<\/p>\n

The permit approval was essential at this time, Simms told the commission, because he needed assurances that he could send out stall applications this month in order to fill the stable area in time for a meet that is expected to begin in November. \u201cIf they don\u2019t go out, there is no racing,\u201d Simms said of the applications. Simms had been operating with temporary permits after being told by regulators that a list of 66 improvements needed to be addressed before a long-term permit could be issued<\/p>\n

It was also essential for Simms to have the permit in order to lease the track to Hartunian.<\/p>\n

The 3-0 vote to conditionally approve the three-year permit (two commissioners recused themselves, citing conflicts of interest) followed a status update from Brian Duncan, racing enforcement and operations manager for the Arizona Department of Gaming, which oversees the racing commission. Duncan\u2019s update included photographs showing improvements to the safety rail on the main track and the inner rail on the turf course, along with clean-up of the stable area. One area that remains unresolved are 14 barns that were inspected by a structural engineering firm but whose report has yet to be received by the Department of Gaming. Duncan pointed out photographs showing barns with roofs covered in part by blue tarps because of leaks. Several barns were demolished, with the debris removal nearly completed, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am confident Turf Paradise and their team will complete this in a timely manner,\u201d Duncan told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

Darrel Haire, western region manager for the Jockeys\u2019 Guild, and Lloyd Yother president of the Arizona Horsemen\u2019s Benevolent and Protective Association, both said progress has been made to address the various issues. \u201cMy hat goes off to them,\u201d said Haire of Turf Paradise. \u201cThey\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We will be watching like hawks,” commissioner Chuck Coolidge warned Simms about the need to complete the repairs by Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

“I will not let you down,” Simms told the commission.<\/p>\n

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Neither Hartunian nor Ludt spoke during the commission meeting.<\/p>\n

Many of the safety improvements were mandated by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, who had representatives on-site inspecting the progress earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Simms said the meet will open with the track being managed by longtime general manager Vincent Francia because it will take months for what he called the new \u201cbuyer\u201d to get approved by regulators. He said Hartunian is seeking a two-year lease with an option to extend it if a new track is not completed in time.<\/p>\n

Asked about whether Hartunian was buying or leasing the track, Simms called it a \u201ccombination of a lease and a purchase\u201d \u2013 though he didn\u2019t specify if Hartunian was buying equipment or the land on which the track sits. Sources told the Paulick Report Simms hopes to sell the Turf Paradise property for upwards of $300 million.<\/p>\n

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Simms has announced potential Turf Paradise buyers before, but the announced transactions never came to fruition.<\/p>\n

Hartunian is president and CEO of Landmark LA Capital Group, which builds and manages multi-family residential buildings in Southern California. He races under the stable name Rockingham Ranch, which co-owned with David Bernsen two back-to-back Breeders\u2019 Cup winners, 2016-\u201917 Turf Sprint winner Stormy Liberal and 2017-\u201918 Sprint winner Roy H.<\/p>\n

Ludt has held a number of industry roles during his career including president of Vinery Farm under the ownership of Tommy Simon, chairman of the Breeders\u2019 Cup, president of Santa Anita Park, and he has served in consulting roles for a number of organizations in racing.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 8, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turf Paradise Could Have New Operator In Coming Months originally appeared on Paulick Report. California horse owner and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[118059,118062,118060,118058,1071,118061,79,118063,92022,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-327639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-brian-duncan","9":"tag-conditional-approval","10":"tag-gary-hartunian","11":"tag-jerry-simms","12":"tag-racing","13":"tag-racing-commission","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tom-ludt","16":"tag-turf-paradise","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114992696815414428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}