California State Fair meet opens with momentum
The summer-fair horse-racing season rolls into Sacramento for a two-week California State Fair meet beginning Friday with momentum following a solid meet at Pleasanton. The Pleasanton meet ended Sunday, and the Sacramento meet runs through July 20, with racing Friday through Sunday this week and Thursday through Sunday next week.
Two wagers new to the fair circuit that helped boost handle at the Pleasanton meet – the Gold Rush Pick Six and a super high five – also will be offered at the California State Fair. The Gold Rush Pick Six pays a jackpot only if there is a single winning ticket. The bet often carries over for many days, building the jackpot, before it is hit. The super high five requires a bettor to pick the first five finishers from a race in order. Both bets have a minimum wager of 20 cents.
Sacramento has carded one Thoroughbred stakes, the $75,000 Governor’s Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares July 19.
The opening-day feature rematches Esperanza Latina and English Royal in a second-level allowance sprint with a $62,500 claiming option. Esperanza Latina wore down English Royal to win a similar race by a nose at Golden Gate Fields on May 18, and neither has raced since then. At six furlongs, Friday’s race is one-sixteenth of a mile longer, and it will be conducted on the dirt main track as opposed to the synthetic at Golden Gate.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 English Royal. Trainer Billy Morey and jockey Russell Baze have combined for 9 wins in 22 starts (41 percent with $2.04 ROI) in dirt sprints over the past two years.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Racing Secretary Tom Doutrich said he was pleased to be able to offer such a high-class race on opening day.
“We just had a real good meet, and we want to run races like that to keep horses around,” he said.
Attracting horses remains a problem, and that is exacerbated by long travel from the San Francisco Bay Area, where many of the horses are stabled, and the usual heat associated with Sacramento in July. The six Thoroughbred races on opening day attracted fields of 6, 7, 7, 7, 5, and 8.
Sacramento is offering bonuses to trainers in an effort to fill races. A trainer will receive $800 if he enters five horses during the seven days of racing and $1,500 if he enters 10 horses.
◗ Buoyed by the partnership with the Oak Tree Racing Association, Oak Tree at Pleasanton showed gains in both the live racing handle and all-sources handle compared with last year. Total handle on the live races at Pleasanton was up about 14 percent, including a 2 percent increase at the track, where $4,987,844 was bet on live races during the 12-day meet. The all-sources handle, including simulcast wagering, was up 6 percent to $16,843,103.