The Arizona Department of Racing on Monday granted Turf Paradise in Phoenix a 45-day conditional permit to open as scheduled on Saturday after discussing a litany of items the track is still addressing to bring it into compliance with health and safety regulations. The 2-1 vote on granting the conditional permit came at the tail end of a 90-minute special meeting to discuss the track’s progress in meeting the standards. Turf Paradise has been scrambling to comply with the regulations since the track was sent a letter in late June from the department and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority containing approximately 150 items that needed to be addressed for compliance with both state and HISA standards. The vote to authorize the conditional permit included several provisions requiring Turf Paradise to provide updates on its progress in complying with remaining concerns and a requirement that the track report to the department within 24 hours any incident resulting in an injury to a horse or jockey. Prior to the vote, Brian Duncan, the racing enforcement manager for the department, detailed 15 “priority items” at the track that had yet to be remedied, including the need for new equipment to standardize maintenance of the racing surface, repairs to ambulances and water trucks, and a laundry list of general repairs and sanitizations involving the jockeys’ room, the stewards’ stand, the test barn, and the receiving barn.  Although Vince Francia, the longtime general manager of the track, provided an item-by-item run-down on the track’s schedule for resolving each of the issues, commission members and representatives of horsemen and jockeys expressed concern with the track’s progress so far and its itinerary for completing them. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Some of those concerns related to the frustration felt by horsemen at the late hour in which the matters were being addressed. “We’re racing Saturday and we’re talking about getting water fixed on Friday,” said J. Lloyd Yother, president of the Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, referring to the scheduled installation of a new water pump. “It’s unfathomable to me how we can wait, wait, wait, just to do half-measures. We don’t seem to fix anything. It’s just half-measures on everything we do.” Yother said that “several” horses had suffered injuries since the track opened for training in early October, a comment that began a back-and-forth with Francia over the cause of the injuries.  “My concern is that we don’t jump to conclusions, no matter how tragic these incidents are, and they are all tragic, that it’s immediately the fault of the racing surface,” Francia responded. “That’s not going to get to the truth of the matter.” Yother responded that “it’s not a fact that I am jumping to conclusions.” “I’m just trying to raise the concerns I have,” Yother said. “I’m not pointing any fingers.” Earlier in the meeting, while addressing the item areas dealing with surface maintenance, Francia had said that he talks with trainers and jockeys every morning.  “If anything is off, I know it instantly,” Francia said. “I’m not trying to give the impression that the surface is unsafe. . . . Never would we let a horse go on to the main track or the training track if it was in any way dangerous. Can it be better? Yes.” That comment was addressed later in the meeting by Darrell Haire, the western regional manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, who said that jockeys had complained to him during a three-day visit to the track last week that they picked their riding paths based on “where the water-truck paths are, because [the track] was so uneven.” “I don’t know who Mr. Francia is talking to,” Haire said. The list of repairs were delivered this summer at a time when horsemen and track management had appeared to resolve lingering issues of distrust rooted in recent efforts to sell the track over the prior 12 months. Several potential sales were said to be in the offing, but both dissolved. After the sales fell through, Turf Paradise’s owner, Jerry Simms, said he was committed to racing, and the track and its horsemen reached a three-year deal on a live-racing agreement. Simms said at the meeting on Monday that the track is prepared to do whatever it takes to comply with the remaining items prior to live racing beginning Saturday. He noted that the list of 150 items had been whittled to 15 in a matter of months. “That’s the attitude we have, what needs to be done, we’re going to do it,” Simms said. Turf Paradise has already drawn its Saturday card. A total of 78 horses were entered for the eight races. Sunday’s card is scheduled to be drawn Tuesday morning. The Saturday opener also coincides with the second day of the Breeders’ Cup event at Del Mar in Southern California, a big simulcasting day across the United States. The commission briefly discussed scheduling a meeting for Friday to get a final update on whether the remaining items had been addressed before issuing a permit. But Kandace French Contreras, chairwoman of the commission, called for the vote on a conditional permit after saying that she had “heartburn keeping all these trainers and jockeys waiting until the day before the race” to make the decision. “Are you telling me you are going to be ready to run on Saturday?” Contreras asked Francis. “Yes, madam chair, I am,” Francia responded. “If that were not the case, I would tell the commission we cannot be ready because of X. . . . There are hundreds of men and women who depend on us to make this race meet happen. Hundreds and hundreds of their family members. But I am not under any circumstance going to tell this commission that something is okay when it is not.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.