Jockey Club at the Sonoma County Fair

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres, is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the famed Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody? Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the nineties on location on location at the beautiful jockey club located on the eastern edge of the Sonoma County fairgrounds. This new facility is really a beautiful thing,

has a lot of, a lot of amenities and a lot of things that you'll enjoy. You can come out here and you can sit, you can watch and wager on the races. You can have lunch at the snack bar in the derby room, you can go

into the turf club and have a delightful luncheon. It's really a beautiful place to spend an afternoon. So if you haven't been there, I sincerely hope you will come soon. Now the people we're gonna be talking to on our program today. We're gonna be talking to

six different people and we're certainly gonna be talking first of all to the people responsible for the very delicious food that comes out of the jockey club catering service. Now, jockey club catering is a private business and is owned and operated by ken, and judy Rousseff,

uh, old friends and it's nice to have you here and you look great. I love the color and you look great to look kind of shabby over here. Uh, First of all, I'm really filled and pleased that you folks are over here because you build a

reputation over on the fairgrounds itself when you operated Wolcott's for good food and all their little spots out there. I've never had a bad bite over there and I'll tell you the truth and I've been out here a couple of times and you've even raised the

standard a lot with your jockey club catering. So I'm proud of both of you. I think that's great. Why don't you describe your role in the operation of the jockey club? Well, we do it. We are responsible for the setup of the, a lot of equipment.

When we first opened this facility and accept the menus and a lot of new personnel right now, currently we have the snack bar, which you mentioned which serves basically snack snack food, fast food to the largest section of the building. We have a full service bar

and that this would be the Derby room and then the turf club we have a sit down restaurant, which basically involves a full lunch and menu with a variety of appetizers, sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts and there's also a full bar service in that room also.

I had lunch here two weeks ago. It was delightful. The service is great to somebody comes right to your table and serves you like the most expensive restaurant. What would you like to add to that? Just a little bit about our, our menu. We tried to

have a diverse menu, but it is a luncheon fair. We have a hamburger section with several different kinds of hamburgers, wonderful soups and salads. We're finding that a lot of our clients customers like a lighter, healthier fare. So caesar salad is very popular. Caesar salad with

chicken. But then the hamburgers continue to be popular for those who are going to splurge and your other role and you're wearing your other hat over on the fairgrounds, you always produced magnificent hamburgers. I can attest to that. I've had 1000 of them. Um, you kind

of talked about the kind of food and beverage available at the jockey club. Anything else you want to add to that? The beverages is a full scale bar. Soft drinks. All right. How about describing the menu at the church club? The turf club is ken alluded

to is, is the luncheon fare with appetizers, soups, salads, desserts of course. Remember that. Um, but a special, I know. I know you have to come in and try them. Yeah, great cheesecake, Great cheesecake, uh, special sandwiches and special hamburger section and we have specials every

day which are great cook always comes up with Debbie. Um So we're very we're very proud of it. These are the more popular items that you've talked about so far and other things like that. All right. How long have the two of you been in the

food service business? Can I know you've been with your World Cup facility for a long time. How long? I've been in food and beverage service at the fairgrounds since 1966. And then judy and I took over the food and beverage service at the watch and wager

facility starting at the old facility in October 1989. And then of course October last year moved into the new building, you have a wonderful facility here. You're doing a great job and we're gonna go enjoy some of it a little later. But I want to thank

you both for taking the time to come over and talk with us and it's nice to see you and judy dear. Been a long time and it's just great to see you guys doing so well. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we've been talking to

ken and judy Rousseff and they are the owner operators of the jockey club catering service. And if you haven't been out to the fairgrounds and taken our part taken I guess I should say of some of their food at the luncheon do so because you really

enjoy it. We'll be back in just a moment. But first this important public service message. Then we'll come back and we'll be talking to either jim moore and roger Hayes or jerry molino and Manuel's office. I don't know which ones will be here first. We'll be

right back, California's most precious resource. No, it's not 1000 miles of coastline or our lakes or our rivers. It's not even our majestic stands of ancient redwoods. It's our Children that are our most precious natural resource. We can enrich the lives and the future of our

Children by introducing him to the history and the beauty and the fun of California's state parks. Welcome back everybody. To this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. On location on location. It's a beautiful jockey club here at the eastern side of Sonoma County Fairgrounds. We're

talking to people who are involved with this jockey club, people that actually helped get it started. We wanted to first mentioned on the amenities here. The jockey club is a beautiful new structure built last year. It has a lovely derby room. It's a large room. It

has a snack bar. You can watch and wager on the races there and real plush comfort. Now, if you want to even more. Plus you can walk over to the left and go into the turf club, which is the dining room. Beautiful screens wagering facilities right

nearby can provide a wonderful afternoon and it's a beautiful, beautiful facility and he's going to tell the gentleman we're about to talk to you going to tell us a little bit about how it came about and where the money came from, that sort of thing. But

1st may I introduce on the left of the screen, manual, Gonzalez and manual is the president of the Sonoma County Fair Board. Hi manny, thank you. Thank you. Here is J Marino and jerry is the chairman of the racing committee. So you're really involved with those

horses, aren't you? I wish I knew all of it. I knew I was gonna say that. All right gentlemen, three or four quick questions here for you. Gerry and manny and Peter want to pop in and add to what the other one said. Do so please

describe the targeted customers of the jockey club. Well, okay. Actually anybody that has some money and would like to come up and spend a nice day and enjoy themselves and hopefully go home with more money than they came with. No, unfortunately I was giving you a

chance to say Yeah, yeah. And it is a beautiful facility. Well, you know when we built this facility, you're upgrading betting facilities that we've had in the past as far as horse racing and this targets the person that enjoys racing and betting and a nicer facility.

It sort of gives us the type of facility that as if you were going to one of the casinos in Tahoe or Reno gives you that kind of a Beyonce does, it certainly does this beautiful place. In fact, some folks, you were mentioning earlier before we

went on the air or some folks who lived maybe in marin County or live in Lake County or Minnesota or some place who could equally go to save a leo when they're racing, choose to come instead of the simulcast because it's more comfortable. That's right. You

know, people will come here and enjoy the facility instead of saying going to Bay Meadows or Golden gate, fighting the traffic, you know, the parking and you know, and it's a nice, nice place to be. What's the relation of the fair board members, fair directors, if

you will to the jockey club itself, you started it, I guess right as far as the, well when simulcast first got started, they picked different racetracks where they would allow the simulcast facility to be built or in our case we went underneath the grandstand and started

there actually, it was kind of like a dungeon. I mean, as you know, it was during the winter, it was awful cold And so we built up and the state had a pot full of money that they could allocate to different ones and I believe they

started it down south with the first one was built and then, uh, we were fortunate enough to be maybe about the 81 built and now we have this, which is about a $3.3 million dollar investment. And it was very nice of the state that they put

up the three million approximately plus or minus. And we put up 300,000, which was the furnishings as far as the kitchen and all. I mean it's the state of the art kitchen and the whole works. One thing, you know, and a lot of people don't realize

it and we really didn't hit on it in. Your first question was that like Kentucky Derby, they could come here and bet the Kentucky Derby and get the odds and everything exactly as if they were there. The only difference is that they don't have to dress

up and spend all that money. That's right. Rich. It's, yeah, it's really though, this facility is really apart an extension of the Sonoma County Fair. I mean, you know, our fair runs all basically all year long and this is really an extension of prolonging the racing

at Sonoma County Fair. And this is a part of the, of the fair, part of the Sonoma County Fair, putting on uh, a show if you want to call it or entertainment or for the people of snow in county as fair directors as a fair board,

concerned about the possibility of the indian gaming in Sonoma County. Absolutely. And uh, you know, it's like anything. They, they are popping up all over. And as you probably read in the newspaper recently that they're gonna be in clear like and they will have machines with

blackjack and and the whole works and eventually, unless the federal government stops it, they will have a casino the same as reno. And in my personal opinion, if the state doesn't jump on it, they're gonna lose out on this money because people are gambling and they're

doing it. And so rather than go to reno they'll be going to these facilities and the state will not receive a dime. And what do you two gentlemen see as the future for the jockey club in Sonoma County? The future could be If and when gambling

is legalized in the state of California that with the 25 betting facilities that are now operated in the state that they could be betting facilities for other than horse racing. Well, you know, like our jockey club here, let's face it, the people that are here, they

just didn't come out of nowhere. They've been get betting all along. And so the only one that we really probably got into their pockets is the bookie. And now that's right, the bookmaker and now the state's getting a percentage of it and we're getting a percentage

of it. And I'm sure that you've noticed our grounds and with this money is what we've been able to improve our grounds over the years the last four or five years will this facility opened during the county fair. Yes. Yes. Yes it will and of course

as you know, Rich is the afternoon, Sometimes it gets a little cold and we have it worked out so that an individual that's at the grandstands that wants to bet on that last race could come over here and enjoy the, the building and the facility and

not freeze to death or whatever. Hopefully we'll have good weather, but it does happen. I can I go back for a second rich on this indian gambling and the way we're set up here is that we Snowmen county directors are appointed by the county board of

supervisors. We answer to the county board of supervisors. The county board of supervisors answer to all of us the voting public, you know, so we all answer directly and indirectly to the people of Sonoma County. And I feel very strongly that if they have indian gambling

or other types that are not controlled, you know, that the people of the state of California have lost control the way it is now. We all answer to the people and we, the control is basically at us the voters. I feel very strongly about that gentlemen.

Our time is up. Thank you very much for taking the time. Nice to see you obviously in more of an affair jerry. It's always a pleasure to see you around the racing area during the fair. Ladies and gentlemen, we've been talking with jerry Marino who is

the chairman of the committee and manual Gonzalez, who is the president of Sonoma County Fair board. We'll be back in just a moment and we'll chat a little bit with jim moore and roger Hayes who are on the administrative staff of the Sonoma County Fair and

will work for these two gentlemen first this important message. How you doing everybody. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties on location at the beautiful jockey club on the eastern end of the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. And as I said in recent programs,

we've done from here, it's a beautiful facility. It's, it has just about everything. It has a lovely place on the right called the Derby room where you can go and sit in great comfort, full scale bar snack bar there. If you'd like to be a little

bit more exclusive, you can go over to the left side, a turf club, which is a lovely, lovely spot. Also sit down at the table and have the luncheon served to you. It's a beautiful place to spend a few hours you can watch and wager on

the horse races. The recent Derby and Preakness and Belmont were just loaded out here and there's gonna be lots more days add that. You'll find the simulcast facility, which we call the jockey club almost full, but you'll probably be able to squeeze in. So be sure

to come out on this segment of the program. We've been talking with first ken and judy Rousseff, the jockey club catering owners and then we talked with jerry Marino racing chairman and many Gonzalez, president of the board. Now we're going to talk to the left of

your screen Roger Hayes and he has a long title, but we know him as the chief financial officer of Stone County Fair. And jim moore. See, jim moore is, oh yes, Jim was an old friend. Try and get away with this. Jim moore is the general

manager of Sonoma County Fair Been. So for how many years? Eight years? Eight years. Eight, excellent years. Probably the best years of Sonoma County Fair has ever known. And I think that's proven by the record. That's enough nice things. Now let's get down to the media

stuff. When did the jockey club open? This facility opened in october of last year. Okay, that's about seven months ago. It's owned by the county of Sonoma. It's part of the county property. Everybody in the county owns a little piece of it said specifically you own

a piece, you're sitting on your piece. Now, I never knew that Roger, maybe. How much did the jockey club cost and who paid for? Well, the jockey club is about a $3.5 million project of which most of it was paid for by the state of California,

about 90% of it. You know, we, I know we are thinking, I'm not sure just exactly how we did this, but jim and you, I know applied for these funds a long, long time ago and finally it came our turn and get the money for this

building and facility rather and it's a beautiful facility. Jim, you must be proud of it. We are, we're very proud of it. But we should also mention that the facility, the state money that went into this facility was all generated from racehorse revenues. It's a special

fund that comes from the racehorse industry that builds this and other facilities like it throughout the state so that there's no general tax money. Your horse racing dollars actually are building right now. What is the daily average attendance here at the jockey club? We have an

attendance of about 550 per day. You know, I must say this, there's lots and lots of, lots of people who love to watch the horse races and this gives them the opportunity to do so during the 11 months that we're not presenting racing uh live, you

might say, um what kind of horses racing, what kind of horse racing I should say is shown via simulcast and from which racetracks do we get races? It's primarily northern California racing day, Meadows, golden gate fields and then the fairs in the summertime. However, more and

more there are races brought up also from the southern California circuit santa, Anita, Hollywood park del mar. Uh and then at night in the evening there's a signal comes up right now from Los Alamitos, which is located in Los Angeles County and those are primarily quarter

horses in appaloosa. Well recently the Derby and the Preakness and the Belmont were run here in 94 I know you had overflow crowds here and in the years past, the Derby Preakness and Belmont have been attended to the hills around here, first in the old facility

and now over here, right those, those races, so we need to get racist from way back east. Oh yeah, there's the biggest races from all over the country or are simulcast in uh, certainly the three triple crown races, always the breeder cuts races. And then even

for instance, the big Derby prep races, those races that have been going on for the past few months that generate the horses that are actually entered in the Derby, they're all shown here and, and wagering is conducted on those, you know, very few of us are

going to have the opportunity to go back to Louisville and watch. I'm hoping that many of you can very few usually are. I think the really nice thing about the fact that you come here and get dug under the same thrill and feeling of watching the

races on these huge screens as you would, if you're in person. I'm not sure that it's exactly the same thing as being in person, but we try to come as close to it as we can deal with? Really great. I don't see a couple of them

out here. Uh What are the admission prices to the now the jockey club has two facilities, the Derby room and the turf club, so which the admission prices for which for the derby room, it's a $2 admission. And then to go into the turf club, it's

an additional $4. We have 100 and 20 seats in there. And again, that's, as you mentioned earlier, that's where we have table service and reserve seating. I think I was really impressed. I was out here when, you know, when you have the Grand opening and then

a few times after. But I was really surprised the first time I came in and saw the derby room, which is the facility we went for a $2 is a magnificent deal. It's got chairs all over. I got a huge screen, has a full bar and

has a lovely snack bar betting machines. People, I mean, what more could you want to Churchill downs? But you're going to serve we serve those two. So we're just like her. Okay. Can't Yeah, I knew he'd put that in. How important is the jockey club in

the overall financial picture of the fairgrounds? Well, it's very important. It's When the, when the board of supervisors approved of this operation, way back in 1985, they specified that all net revenues from this operation would go into improvements on the fairgrounds. And so that is, that's

been done and it is a big source of the improvements on the fairgrounds and I hope that people have noticed that, that there have been significant improvements and to a large extent those have been financed from revenues from this facility. Let me digress for a moment.

You know, I've, you know, I've known you for ages and ages, but I've been in love with the fairgrounds and the fair since my father brought me the first time in 35 and I've worked with you, served with you in a lot of different capacities out

here and I love the fair and I love the fairgrounds and I think what you have done to the fairgrounds in the last few years, all of you combined and the way you have taken your priorities and established them and carry them out is really earned

you a big vote of thanks from the people of Sonoma County because for one thing you come in there now and there's grassy areas, you know, which, which makes you feel more down home or at the fair. You got great facilities over there. You have great

food, you got great entertainment. I have said and I repeat again when we do the fair shows, there is no better entertainment dollar than Sonoma County Fair. I don't think, do you? I don't think so. I think it's the best entertainment, especially for families, the best

entertainment that you can get very wholesome educational and uh, I'm like you, I, I grew up in this county coming to the fair since I was a little kid and, and I've just always enjoyed it and we're trying to make it better. It's a team effort.

As you know, there's an awful lot of people that that put an awful lot into it and we're happy with what we've been able to do and I'm very proud of it to appreciate the efforts of the gym littles and the big fellas and the crisp

Arlauskis because they all were sincere people and they all did the best they could. But jim, you've either been gifted with a great staff for a lot of vision because the things you've done show and they show and they appreciated and they talked about and that's

to your credit. Well, that's nice of you to say that you're right. We have a great staff, a great fair board and the board of supervisors, very supportive, but probably the very biggest thing that, that makes the difference is you have the money to do something.

We've had that part of that was this. And as you said, there have been just excellent fair managers here for a long time and they also did very well. I think that we're maybe a little bit more fortunate that we have this facility and the revenues

generated from here to go back into the fair and you know, you can have all the best management in the world, but if you don't have the money to put into it, right? Yeah. One final thing here, a couple of minutes left, California is considered considering,

I should say many gambling options now. How is legalized gambling on horse racing Different from some of the other forms of gambling? Well, I'll take my shot at and roger probably has a few comments too, but you jump in any time. In my opinion, the big

difference is that horse racing is much more than just a gambling opportunity. It's, it's a sporting event just like the N. B. A. Or the National Football League or any baseball league. Uh, Plus it supports a tremendous industry. There's, you know, these horses cost just a

tremendous amount of money to, to buy train breed keeping in shape for each one of these horses and there's probably at least 3000 of them at any given time. Just in northern California, The cost of supporting that animal is probably a minimum of $20,000 a year.

And that $20,000 a year supports at least one job. And so for every, for every horse and training, there's at least one job created in the state and probably more the breeding farms and the feed supplies. The barriers and everything else where satellite areas where a

slot machine really doesn't support anybody. They build a slot machine. Once put it out, make you rich, but you'll be one of five million. Yeah, well I just wanted to echo what Jim said and he touched on the training of the horses. But just in Sonoma

County you can see all the fabulous breeding ranches we have and all of that is as Jim mentioned his money that's injected into the local economy. And unfortunately all those costs also put horse racing at a bit of a disadvantage versus say the lottery and some

of the more inexpensive forms of gambling and if, if they're allowed to proliferate it, it's a threat to horse racing. Well, to conclude that horse racing is a sport and anybody that tells you a jockey is not an athlete is crazy. That's the hardest job where

I tried that as a kid as an exercise boy and I thank God I didn't carry it on. I have been long gone. Ladies and gentlemen, it's really been a pleasure to bring you this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. On location at the beautiful

jockey club located on the eastern edge of the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, a fabulous facility. Come out and watch wager, sit and enjoy yourself in comfort, A full bar snack bar on one side, full of the restaurant on the other and an enjoyable afternoon for all of

you. So I hope you'll take advantage of it. Come out, see what it's all about and enjoy it. My name is Rich McGlinchey. The program has been Sonoma County in the nineties. I'll be back with you next week. We'll talk to other members of the county,

government, family or related agencies such as our fabulous simulcast facility. Till then. Goodbye, Good luck and good health, each and every one of them. Mhm.