Big Fresno Fair meet will bring curtain down on summer fair season

The summer fair season, which began with promise as the Oak Tree Racing Association partnered with the Alameda County Fair meet at Pleasanton, winds down its 2014 season at the Big Fresno Fair beginning Thursday.

The nine-day meet, which runs through Oct. 13, includes a $100,000 stakes race.

The Harris Farms Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for California-bred 3-year-olds and up, will be run Sunday. The race attracted 15 nominees and will be the third $100,000 stakes of the fair season, with two such races, the Oak Tree Handicap and Oak Tree Distaff for California-breds, having been held at Pleasanton.

“I think it’s great. We’re really moving forward,” said Larry Swartzlander, chief operating officer of the California Authority of Racing Fairs, noting that the first $100,000 Thoroughbred stakes on the fair circuit was held at Fresno.

CARF racing secretary Tom Doutrich said the movement in California Cup dates created the opportunity for the sprint stakes, which is part of the Golden State Series for California-breds.

The fairs, including the independent Sonoma County Fair at Santa Rosa, combine to offer more stakes than Golden Gate Fields does at its six-month winter-spring meet.

“It’s sometimes hard to have stakes in the summer when there are no stakes in a number of categories earlier in the year,” said Doutrich.

Handle at the summer fair circuit has been mixed, but the fairs have had a good year as far as attendance goes.

“At many fairs, advance-deposit wagering is up, but it’s pulling more of our ontrack handle away,” said Swartzlander.

Tracks generate more money for purses from ontrack wagering than ADW wagering. Still, CARF fairs have been able to generate enough in handle to maintain their purse structure, which is actually slightly higher than at Golden Gate Fields at the lower levels.

Fresno faces bigger problems than some fairs because of its distance from Golden Gate Fields. To that end, Doutrich said the CARF trainer bonus of $500 for trainers who run five horses during the meet and $1,000 for trainers who run 10 horses will remain in effect.

Doutrich said he tried to get one trainer to run a bottom-level claimer at Fresno and was told that the trainer didn’t want to ship a cheaper horse for a low purse. Even when Doutrich pointed out that the purse was $2,000 higher than at Golden Gate, the trainer still did not enter.

“I understand that some trainers want to use fair meets to freshen their horses and stay home,” Doutrich said. “But they’ve really done a nice job with the fair. The board certainly supports racing and has made many improvements both for the horsemen and the fans. People who haven’t been here in a while would be amazed.”