Big Fresno Fair begins nine-day run Thursday

Two stakes highlight the Big Fresno Fair’s nine-day run, which begins Thursday.

The $100,000 Harris Farms Stakes, Northern California’s only sprint stakes offering a six-figure purse, will be run Saturday. The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up is part of the California-bred Golden State Series.

The $50,000 Bulldog Handicap, also for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles, tops the closing-day card on Oct. 14.

The Big Fresno Fair races Thursday-Sunday this week and on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next week. First post is at 1:15 p.m. Pacific.

The Big Fresno Fair is sandwiched between two meets at Golden Gate Fields. Last year, Pleasanton conducted a meeting two weeks before the opening of Fresno, but that meet was eliminated this year.

Racing secretary Tom Doutrich thinks some horses that would have run at Pleasanton will instead run at Fresno, and some ran at the recently concluded Golden Gate meet, which increased purses for lower-level claiming races.

“Not having Pleasanton in front of this meet could help,” Doutrich said. “We saw that horses would generally not run at Pleasanton and then Fresno.”

Regarding the purse boost at Golden Gate and its effect on Fresno, Doutrich said: “I am glad that purses were raised. It will hurt us. It has enough impact that we’ll have some trainers not running because they ran recently at Golden Gate, but I think we’ll be all right here. Our trainer incentive program helps, and people have always loved the way they are treated here.”