SB 397 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Horse racing: thoroughbred racing.

Summary

Existing law authorizes the California Horse Racing Board to regulate horse racing and parimutuel wagering on horse races in California, and authorizes the board to set the standards for the types of races that may be run and the types of horses that may be run, within statutory guidelines. Existing law authorizes the board to grant licenses to an association other than a fair for only one type of racing, but provides an exception for the board to authorize thoroughbred and Appaloosa horses to enter in quarter horse races shorter than 5 furlongs at specified meetings, subject to specified conditions. This bill would change the above-described exception to instead authorize thoroughbred and Appaloosa horses to enter in quarter horse races at any distance. Existing law authorizes an association licensed to conduct quarter horse racing to apply to the board for, and requires the board to grant, authority to conduct thoroughbred racing as part of its racing program if specified conditions are met, including that the thoroughbred races are for a claiming price of not more than $5,000, and at a distance of 4.5 furlongs or less. This bill would change the above-described condition to instead provide that the thoroughbred races are for a claiming price of not more than $6,000, at any distance.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 14, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

03/24/25 - Amended Senate → SB397 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This diff represents a transition from the Amended Senate version to the final enrolled text of SB 397. The changes are primarily technical: the amendment markup (showing old words being struck and new words inserted) has been cleaned up into a single clean text, and website navigation elements were added. No new substantive policy changes were made between these two versions; the key policy content was already established in the Amended Senate version.

TECHNICAL

Amendment markup was resolved into clean final text. For example, 'Any A license' became 'A license,' 'any an association' became 'an association,' and 'may shall not' became 'shall not.' These are formatting cleanups, not policy changes.

Website navigation elements (search bar, links to bill information, votes, history, etc.) were added to the document presentation. These are not part of the legislative text.

FISCAL

The thoroughbred claiming price limit at quarter horse tracks is set at $6,000 (up from the prior law's $5,000). This was already in the Amended Senate version and is carried forward unchanged into the final text.

SCOPE

The distance restriction for thoroughbred races at quarter horse tracks (previously limited to 4.5 furlongs or less) has been removed, allowing thoroughbred racing at any distance. This was already in the Amended Senate version and is carried forward unchanged.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on G.O.

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 26, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 14, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors