Turf Paradise Operator Alleges Coordinated Effort to Oust Him After Weekend Lockout in Phoenix

Phoenix · News

Gary Hartunian of Skyfall 7 says he was locked out of the Phoenix track Saturday; the property owner declined to comment in the reporting, and the meet is scheduled to open Nov. 27.

By Dana Mercer, Previously

October 12, 2026 · Phoenix, Arizona

According to Horse Racing Nation, track security swept through the front-side offices and simulcast center on Saturday and ordered staff to leave, and signs posted at the property said TP Racing had retaken possession of the premises. The Paulick Report reported that Hartunian could not be reached by telephone on Saturday and that Simms declined to comment that evening.

PHOENIX — The dispute over who controls Turf Paradise escalated on Monday evening, October 12, when Gary Hartunian, the majority owner of Skyfall 7 LLC, issued a statement alleging a coordinated effort to remove him from the Phoenix racetrack he is licensed to operate. The statement, reported by the Paulick Report on Monday, followed a weekend in which, according to Hartunian, representatives of property owner Jerry Simms took possession of the track on Saturday, October 10. Horse Racing Nation also covered the Monday statement and the weekend lockout.

Hartunian's account, as reported by the Paulick Report, is an allegation, not an established finding, and Previously is presenting it that way. According to Hartunian's statement, a security guard at the track was pressed to hand over keys, Skyfall 7 employees were removed from the property, and those employees were then barred from returning. Simms declined to comment to the Paulick Report, and no statement from Simms disputing or confirming Hartunian's version was included in the coverage reviewed for this article.

The practical effect, whichever account of the weekend ultimately prevails, was immediate. Simulcast operations shut down at Turf Paradise itself and at off-track betting sites across Arizona that were included in Hartunian's lease arrangement. For bettors, that meant the familiar statewide network tied to the track went dark. For horsemen, it meant a new layer of uncertainty only weeks before horses were due to arrive and a new meet was due to begin.

What the two sides appear to be fighting over

Skyfall 7 LLC is described in the Paulick Report coverage as the licensed operator holding the permit to run the Turf Paradise meet. Hartunian is its majority owner. Simms is the property owner. Hartunian operated under a two-year lease, with an option to renew for up to three additional years, according to the Paulick Report and Horse Racing Nation. That distinction — owning the land and buildings on one side, holding the racing permit and the operating lease on the other — is central to understanding why a lockout is possible at all, and why each side can claim a different kind of authority over the same grandstand.

In his Monday statement, Hartunian disputed the grounds for the lockout and said the action was not a routine landlord step. He characterized it, in his own framing, as part of a coordinated effort to oust him. Readers should treat that characterization as Hartunian's allegation. Neither the Paulick Report coverage nor Horse Racing Nation presented an independent finding that such a coordinated effort existed, and Simms, through his silence in that coverage, has not publicly answered it in the reporting reviewed here.

Ludt, for his part, flatly rejected Hartunian's account when the Paulick Report reached him on Monday. He denied any conspiracy, said he knew nothing about the lockout before it happened on Saturday, and said he resigned in early October over philosophical differences with Hartunian. Ludt also alleged that Hartunian was delinquent to Simms and to multiple vendors and questioned whether a race meet could start on schedule under Skyfall 7 — allegations Hartunian's statement disputes, maintaining that base rent under the lease has been fully paid and was never delinquent. Ludt said his side had given Hartunian a written proposal to buy him out so that a meet could be run. The details of that proposal — price, terms, timing and any response — were not disclosed in the coverage. Previously is not presenting the proposal as an agreed deal, a rejected deal or a pending sale. It is, on the record available Monday night, part of an active dispute in which the two sides describe the same weekend in opposite terms.

A leadership exodus came first

The lockout did not arrive out of nowhere. It followed the resignations of key personnel, including general manager Tom Ludt and assistant general manager Dave Johnson. Those departures were disclosed at the October 8 meeting of the Arizona Racing Commission, according to the Paulick Report. Hartunian said he learned of some of those resignations at that meeting — a detail that, if accurate, suggests how quickly the operating picture at the track was changing in the days before the weekend.

There is also a second account of the weekend inside the industry. Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association executive director Leroy Gessmann emailed his board that Simms had exercised his rights under the lease, according to the Paulick Report. That framing is materially different from Hartunian's. Where Hartunian describes an improper ouster, the message attributed to Gessmann describes a landlord acting within a lease. Previously cannot resolve that conflict from statements alone, and this article does not try to. Both framings are now part of the public record of the dispute, attributed to the people who offered them.

What happens in the next several days will matter more than Monday's statements. Hartunian said he had a new management team ready to start on Tuesday, October 13. Whether that team is allowed onto the property, whether it can restart simulcasting, and whether regulators treat the meet preparations as on track are concrete questions that statements alone cannot answer.

The calendar is the real pressure point

Turf Paradise is not in the middle of its meet. It is on the edge of one. The 2026-27 meet is scheduled to begin November 27, according to the Paulick Report and Horse Racing Nation. Horses were expected to start arriving October 17, a date the Paulick Report gave in its Monday coverage; one account placed stable-area arrivals on October 19. Previously is using October 17, following the Paulick Report's Monday reporting, while noting that horses are due this week either way.

Before any horse settles in, the facility itself has to pass scrutiny. An inspection by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority — HISA — of stabling upgrades at the track is scheduled for October 16, according to the coverage. That timing leaves almost no slack. If access to the backside, the barns or the offices remains contested through the inspection date, a private lease dispute becomes a regulatory problem with a deadline.

Trainers planning a Phoenix winter face decisions that cannot wait for a court calendar. Shipping a string of horses is expensive, stalls have to be prepared, staff have to be housed and entered work has to be planned. Owners with horses aimed at the November 27 opener need to know whether the meet will open on schedule, whether purses and conditions will hold, and who will actually be running the racing office when entries are taken. A weekend of silence from one side and statements from the other does not answer any of that.

What this means for Arizona racing and bettors

For Arizona bettors, the most visible consequence is the simulcast shutdown described in the Paulick Report coverage. The off-track betting sites included in Hartunian's lease deal are part of how many Arizona fans follow and wager on racing outside live race days in Phoenix. Every dark day is lost handle, lost foot traffic for host locations and another reason for a casual bettor to drift to a phone app based somewhere else.

For horsemen, the stakes are livelihoods rather than convenience. The Arizona HBPA represents the trainers and owners who stock the races. Its members need a functioning backside, a secure stable area and confidence that the meet they are shipping in for will actually be run. Gessmann's email to his board, as reported by the Paulick Report, suggests the horsemen's leadership was being told the landlord had acted within his rights. Hartunian's statement suggests the licensed operator believes he was pushed out improperly. Horsemen are caught between those two accounts with horses due to move within days.

For the wider Phoenix sports calendar, Turf Paradise occupies a place few other venues do. It is a long-running, working-class corner of the Valley's sporting life — live racing, simulcast rooms and off-track sites spread across the state rather than a single downtown arena night. Readers following other Valley sports can find continuing coverage in Previously Sports and broader regional reporting in Previously News, but the racing story this week is fundamentally about control of one property and one permit.

Previously will follow the next verifiable steps rather than the loudest claims: whether Hartunian's stated management team appears and is admitted on Tuesday, October 13, whether the HISA stabling inspection proceeds on October 16, whether horses arrive starting October 17, and whether simulcast and off-track operations resume. Any statement from Simms, any action by the Arizona Racing Commission and any filing that tests the lease in court will materially change this story. Until then, the accurate summary is narrow and important — the licensed operator says he was locked out in a coordinated effort to oust him, the horsemen's director told his board the property owner exercised lease rights, the property owner declined to comment in the Paulick Report coverage, and Arizona's racing season is scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks with its Phoenix track in dispute.

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