More than 750 backstretch workers at Santa Anita racetrack now live and work in isolation, largely cut off from the outside world and increasingly from each other to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

They sleep in worn dormitories, sometimes in pairs, tucked among the racetrack’s barns. New restrictions bar visitors, and even horse owners, from entering the historic grounds at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.

And though nothing prevents the workers from leaving the 320-acre Arcadia park, many do not have cars or licenses. Even if they did, there’s really nowhere to go amid the pandemic.

There is a sense of anxiety in the community, according to those who work and live at Santa Anita. Like everywhere else, their fears are primarily about the coronavirus, though there’s increasing worry about the future of their jobs as well.

Rafael Gonzalez, a 61-year-old groom, is burying himself in his work. He begins tending to the horses shortly before 4 a.m. on most days.

He is optimistic the restrictions will lift in time for him to visit his mother and family near Guadalajara this summer.

“I’m working every day now,” Gonzalez said. “Six weeks, two months, it’ll be OK. If nothing happens by that time, I think everything will be OK.”

Currently, the track requires a 14-day quarantine for anyone who has left the state, making travel — particularly out of the country — nearly impossible for the low-paid stable hands.

No coronavirus cases at Santa Anita

No COVID-19 cases have been reported at Santa Anita — which ceased racing last month — though there isn’t any proactive testing either. A health clinic, funded by wagering, is open to employees, and executives say they can quarantine individuals if anyone does present with symptoms.

In an interview, Gonzalez said the track is quiet after the work day ends. He often only sees security officers on their patrols, he said. Gone are the family-style meals, poker games and music that the workers bonded over.

He doesn’t see other grooms, hot walkers and exercise riders socializing outside the dormitories anymore. The rec room is closed. Televisions throughout the track, where the workers gathered to cheer on horse races and soccer, have been turned off and the chairs removed.

“I come and sleep as soon as I can,” Gonzalez said. “Everybody is inside. There’s no place to go, no one to see, no one to talk to.”

The workers rely on food deliveries, an on-site sundry shop and a cafeteria that stops serving food at 4 p.m. for most of their meals. Perishable foods were rounded and given to the workers who live on-site when the track closed to the public, according to The Stronach Group, which owns the racetrack.

Gonzalez said he typically only travels outside of the track to go to the market to buy cat food now.

The backstretch workers and trainers interviewed for this story say they feel safe at Santa Anita. Newly added hand-washing stations are numerous enough to trip over, according to one trainer. Employees wear masks as they work and signs warn to practice social distancing.

“It is very strict now,” Gonzalez said. “Everybody cleans their hands when they do anything.”

The racetrack is strictly controlling access to the backstretch. Outsiders can’t bring their horses to the stables anymore; instead, an employee is sent to collect each animal. Horses cannot carry the coronavirus, officials stressed.

The company declined to let a reporter inspect track protocols in person.

Together, but distant

Jayro Lopez started working at Santa Anita as a teenager during his summer breaks, a trend that continues now as he attends Cal State Long Beach. His father, Dagoberto Lopez, has worked in the industry for 35 years. It’s the only job he’s had since migrating from Mexico.

Workers with families must live off-site, the younger Lopez said, so his father commutes to Santa Anita from the South Bay daily. The work hasn’t changed, besides the increased hand washing, but the mood certainly has, Lopez said.

High fives, fist bumps and hugs have been replaced with distant waves. Lopez said his father has nightmares about getting sick.

“The only people they interact with are the people like them who are literally there 24/7,” Lopez said. “They’re very connected between themselves and kind of isolated from everyone else.”

Racing has stopped

Santa Anita’s restrictions started before the stay-at-home orders went out in California. The Stronach Group closed the venue to the public March 12 — the day after the NBA suspended its season — but continued to host live races to empty grandstands until March 27, when the Los Angeles County Health Department ordered the track to shut down.

Several horsemen said they were told a complaint from an animal rights activist triggered the county’s decision, but county officials would not confirm this.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Santa Anita, declined to comment, instead deferring to the Public Health Department. A department spokesman would not answer questions about the decision.

“All the employees are able to continue with their care of the horses, including training,” the spokesman said. “Racing is not an essential activity, so the track is not able to hold live racing at this time.”

The company’s executives argue racing should be allowed to continue because the employees deemed essential to care for the horses, such as Gonzalez, would also run the competitions. They’ve offered to build a segregated area for jockeys and other employees that wouldn’t otherwise be at the racetrack already.

“We have the ability with very little extra risk to continue operating economically while ensuring the health and well-being of the horses,” said Aidan Butler, the head of The Stronach Group’s California Racing Operations. “We’re soon not going to be able to carry on the training, unless we can keep the economic engine going. The second that dries up, we’re all going to be in trouble.”

At Santa Anita, there’s about one person working in the backstretch for every two horses in the stables, according to John Shirreffs, the trainer of Hall of Fame horse Zenyatta. Santa Anita is currently home to about 1,700 horses.

Lobbying to reopen track

Without income from racing, horse owners may opt sell their horses, or ship them off to another state, and then slash their staffs. The horse caretakers may decide to pack up and leave if the trainers can no longer pay them.

“To meet the cost of labor, we need the income the purses generate,” Shireffs said. “It’s a very fragile business. If it goes on too long, people will have to start laying off employees, which they will probably hate to do, but it will be the only thing they’ll be able to do.”

In an open letter April 3, Belinda Stronach, the president of The Stronach Group, urged county leaders to reconsider the shutdown, warning that a stop to racing and wagering could lead to a “unnecessary humanitarian and animal care crisis on top of what we are all already dealing with.”

“Simply put, by ceasing live racing operations we are jeopardizing the income stream for backstretch employees and the financial resources required to provide them and the horses they love with the care they both deserve,” Stronach wrote.

“For our 750 backstretch employees, the live racing element of the ecosystem allows Santa Anita Park to provide safe and secure housing, enables the California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation to offer critical health care services at the on-site medical clinic and ensures that backstretch employees have access to no-cost critical support services.”

The concerns wrought by the coronavirus follow on the heels of a difficult past two years for the horse racing industry in California. Dozens of equine fatalities at Santa Anita last year forced The Stronach Group, and other tracks throughout the state, to make significant reforms, including stricter limitations on medications and the number of horses on the track. Santa Anita implemented a bonus system this year to try to draw owners and trainers back.

Move to Los Alamitos?

There are now talks of potentially moving racing dates from Santa Anita to the Los Alamitos racetrack, which has not been ordered to stop racing by the Orange County Health Department. The California Horse Racing Board would have to approve such a deal.

The uncertainty is nerve-wracking for the employees living at Santa Anita, according to Jayro Lopez.

“A lot of the worries I heard when I was there this past weekend, they were afraid of the track being shut down, of trainers moving to other states, of them not having anywhere to work, or anywhere to stay,” he said.

Many do not have skills that are transferable to other jobs, he said.

“A lot of families don’t have the opportunity where they have someone else providing income,” he said. “The racetrack is the only source of income that they have.”

Oscar de la Torre, an advocate for Santa Anita’s backstretch workers, said Los Angeles County should send someone to assess Santa Anita’s protocols, and, if deemed safe, it should allow racing to resume.

Other economically beneficial work, such as construction of the NFL stadium in Inglewood, continues without the same scrutiny, despite having a positive COVID-19 case.

The shutdown of Santa Anita feels political, he said.

“If they lose their houses, and they lose their jobs, and they lose their medical benefits, you’re going to have more than 750 people out in Los Angeles County struggling,” he said. “They can’t just go and get another job, these people don’t get it.”