With Turf Paradise in the process of a racing permit transfer to a new leaseholder that puts the 69-year-old track on the cusp of a possible regime change, stakeholders who spoke about the longer-term future of racing in greater Phoenix were cautiously optimistic during Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting.But representatives of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) did articulate short-term concerns that at times vacillated between glass-half-full and glass-half-empty, echoing a nagging tone of uncertainty familiar to anyone who has followed the ups and downs of recently tumultuous racing seasons at the state's main commercial Thoroughbred track.AZHBPA president J. Lloyd Yother told commissioners at the Sept. 11 meeting that Turf Paradise is flooded with stall applications for the Nov. 10–May 2 meet, with an expected influx of 3,000 horses.But, Yother added, Turf Paradise's backstretch barn area is not right now able to handle that surge of capacity because of ongoing structural work to the stables.“We've got an issue there of about 1,400 [stalls] that needs to be solved prior to Oct. 1, which is when the horsemen come in,” Yother said.And while Yother termed the demand for stall space as “new life breathed into the track, which is tremendous [and] what we've been trying to accomplish for a number of years,” his colleague at the AZHBPA, executive director Leroy Gessmann, pointed out that owners and trainers would be racing for less money at the 2025-26 meet.“The purses aren't what we want, and the purses are probably 20% less than last year, maybe a little more,” Gessmann said.Part of that reduction can be attributed to an ongoing legal challenge to a $1-million state appropriation to Turf Paradise. According to a Sept. 10 story in the Phoenix-area Daily Independent, Arizona's attorney general has agreed with litigants who allege in court filings that money earmarked in the state budget violates the “gift clause” of the Arizona Constitution.All of this is happening against the backdrop of Turf Paradise owner Jerry Simms leasing the track and its network of 38 off-track betting (OTB) facilities to a limited liability company headed by Gary Hartunian, a California-based real estate businessman who races horses under the stable name Rockingham Ranch.Tom Ludt, a veteran racing industry executive, will be transitioning into the general manager's role while the Turf Paradise permit process plays out at the AZRC level.As one of his first official acts as the new GM at an AZRC meeting, Ludt was asked by commissioners to clarify the new leaseholders' intentions amid speculation that the existing property could be redeveloped by the new group, with a new track to be built elsewhere in the Phoenix area.“It's to be determined. We're not abandoning the property. It's a two-year lease with options to go forward,” Ludt said. “What will determine [future plans], once we get permitted, is we'll start looking at properties. But we're always going to be upgrading and looking at the current facility.“To answer the question of where or when, we'll determine that. [And] what we will be doing is Maricopa County racing for the long term, whether it's physically at the current address or a new location.“That will be one of my priorities of life as I get here,” Ludt said.“But we're way too early to get into that,” Ludt added. “That's why we wanted the ability to lease this for a while. Under the agreement, we will be responsible for maintaining the property and doing the upgrades, so it will all be under our responsibility. We're retaining the name Turf Paradise. That's in the agreement,” Ludt said.“The public needs to know this: I am not an interim [hire]. I'm doing this general management on a short-term basis pending the approval of the new permit,” Ludt said.“Gary Hartunian and I have spent an enormous amount of time [and] Turf Paradise has been very cooperative. We're fully aware of what we're getting into. Some will question my sanity, and they probably should.“I've been in the horse business for 30 years,” Ludt pointed out with a survivalist's self-deprecating touch of humor. “But I'm still here.”Ludt continued, focusing forward: “I don't want anybody to think that we don't know what we're doing. We understand the circumstances of the purses. That million dollars [from the state appropriation] is being withheld, and I've been involved in those negotiations with the horsemen. We're not going to [factor into the purse account] money that we're not guaranteed to get. So yes, the purses aren't what we'd like. Obviously the horsemen seem to think there's a bright future. They're submitting their applications.”Ludt added that the new leaseholders are also banking on a long-term future.“That's why we're making this investment,” Ludt said.Gessmann said that although the purses are lower than last season, he doesn't believe they'll be reduced further.“I do want to assure the horsemen that those purse levels have been carefully established,” Gessmann said. “I worked very closely with [Turf Paradise] on coming up with what the purses are. [So] they may increase, but they will not decrease, [and] what is in the [first condition] book is what the purse levels are [for the meet].”In recent years, disagreements between the Arizona racing community and Simms have roiled in the courts and at AZRC meetings. Prolonged fights over race dates, OTB privileges, simulcast signals, and purses have all been topics of heated debate.Within a four-month period in 2023-24, two separate sales of Turf Paradise fell through after Simms had expressed confidence to the AZRC and to horsemen that the deals were moving forward without trouble.On Thursday, Simms told the commission that workers have been going full-tilt over the summer to make structural improvements to the barn area.“Normally, we would spend, getting ready for a season, $30,000 or $40,000 in repairs and so on,” Simms said. “This year we've spent $1.5 million, and we're far from done with some of the roofs.”Yother agreed that “there has been a lot of activity going on this year, and things are moving, I feel, in the right direction.”But Yother and Simms have repeatedly been at odds over the years about the scope and specifics of the actual work that needs to get done, and Thursday's meeting was no exception.Simms, for example, told the commission that barn D1 is getting a new roof.Yother disputed that: “They are actually coating the top of that barn. I was out there yesterday, and they're just sealing that barn. “Maybe that's [Simms's] interpretation of a new roof.”Yother said that regardless of what's being done on barn D1, six other barns still need extensive roof work in the next three weeks before stable area opens.“I commend [the new leaseholders] that are giving us a second shot and coming into Arizona so they can get in line for the possibility of a new track or an existing track,” Yother said. “But what really scares me is we've got 1,620 [currently available stalls]. We've got 3,000 horses coming, [leading to the possibility of] horses getting here with no place to go.”The post Long-Term Optimism, Short-Term Concerns With Turf Paradise On Cusp of Regime Change appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.