Trainer Tim Bellasis is running two-thirds of his stable at Santa Anita on Saturday and Sunday.
The team numbers only three horses and by the end of the weekend Bellasis may be down to two horses after Union Wave runs in the fifth race on Saturday, and Acero starts in Sunday’s fourth race. Both race in $5,000 claimers.
The claiming crowd has their eyes on one, he said.
“I hear I might lose one of them,” he said on Friday. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
Bellasis shipped the trio to Santa Anita on Thursday after the Alameda County fairgrounds in Pleasanton closed as an auxiliary training center earlier this week. There were approximately 300 horses at Pleasanton last weekend, with stables dispersing to Emerald Downs in Washington State and to tracks and a training center in Southern California.
“The vans were there all day long,” Bellasis said. “Probably 25 percent were going to Seattle. A few were going to San Luis Rey Downs. Most are going to Los Al.
“A few barns were going to Santa Anita.”
The Santa Anita stable area is near capacity, making requests for stalls nearly impossible. Bellasis was based at Santa Anita as of Friday, but thought he may have to move 30 miles south to Los Alamitos.
That’s if he stays in racing. Retirement is a possibility for the 66-year-old Bellasis, who had his first runner in 1988 and has a lifetime involvement in the sport. He owns a mobile home in Pleasanton.
“I’m not sure I want to be down here,” he said. “After 50 years, I may quit.
“A little to decompress might not be a bad thing. I’ve never traveled. I’m a California guy. Reno and Vegas is as far East as I’ve ever been.
“I wouldn’t mind taking a break.”
The closure of Pleasanton and the collapse of racing at most venues in Northern California in the last year has caused upheaval in the lives of many participants in racing.
Golden Gate Fields, the flagship track in Northern California since the closure of Bay Meadows in 2008, closed permanently last June. Pleasanton ran an autumn meeting last year that fell short of financial expectations, leading to the cancellation of a proposed winter-spring meeting.
Instead, Santa Anita began offering a small number of races for Northern California-based stables.
The Northern California fair circuit has dissolved, with no racing expected at Fresno, Pleasanton, Sacramento, and Santa Rosa this summer or fall. Officials with the Humboldt county fair in Ferndale, in the far north of the state, have expressed an interest in holding a brief meeting at the end of the summer.
There is widespread concern the contraction will lead to a sharp decline in the number of California-bred foals and participation from owners and trainers based in Northern California. Thoroughbred racing was held at eight venues in California in 2024. This year, the number may dwindle to four, if racing is held at Ferndale. Nearly all Thoroughbred racing will be held at Del Mar, Los Alamitos, and Santa Anita in Southern California.
Bellasis has had a small stable in recent years, running only eight horses last year. He won four races, well below his 2023 mark of 17 wins.
Bellasis deliberately brought only three runners to Southern California.
“I did that on purpose,” he said. “I cut down to a level I can do myself.”
Where he will be in coming weeks, whether Santa Anita, Los Alamitos or starting retirement, remains to be seen.
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