Fair season continues at Sacramento

Tom Doutrich, racing secretary for the California Authority of Racing Fairs, often jokes that the toughest 11 days in sports are when he has to fill races for the California State Fair in Sacramento. But you couldn’t tell that after he took entries for the State Fair’s opening day Friday.

“Excellent!” was his assessment of how the draw went last Saturday.

Doutrich put together a seven-race card that includes one mule race and has 47 entrants.

The State Fair meet continues through July 29 with three days of racing this week (Friday-Sunday) followed by racing Thursdays through Sundays for the final two weeks. First post is 2:15 Pacific.

The State Fair will offer one stakes race, the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares on July 21.

Filling fields at the State Fair is made harder by the July heat in Sacramento. Many of the horses eligible to race at the State Fair are stabled at Golden Gate Fields next to San Francisco Bay, and sometimes trainers don’t want to ship horses from the relative coolness there to Sacramento.

“That’s the number one negative, heat,” Doutrich said. “If it heats up, challenges become even harder.”

The early forecast for Sacramento’s first weekend was for highs in the 80s, maybe brushing 90.

There also is competition for horses from Del Mar, which opens during the second week of the State Fair meet. Doutrich has been trying to recruit horses stabled at Los Alamitos, which closes its meet on Sunday, and he’s also made forays into Oregon. He said 20 horses are coming in from Oregon.

Admission to the fair is $12 and includes admission to the racetrack.

The Northern California fair season began with the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet, which ran from June 15-July 8. The season continues after the State Fair at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa (Aug. 2-12), the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale (Aug. 16-26), and the Big Fresno Fair (Oct. 4-14)