In first meet since 2019, purses are up but field size an issue

With higher purses but ongoing concerns about field size, the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, Calif., begins a two-week meeting on Thursday, the track’s first live racing since 2019.

The Santa Rosa racing dates were transferred to Golden Gate Fields in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. The Santa Rosa fair events were canceled in 2020, while limited fair events were held last summer without live racing at the venue.

While ontrack customers will be back, racing officials are worried about drawing sufficient runners.

The current fair circuit has had mixed results. The Alameda County Fair at Pleasanton averaged 6.16 runners per races from June 17 to July 10, compared to 6.48 runners in 2019 and 5.77 in 2021. The Cal-Expo State Fair meeting in Sacramento that ended a two-week season on Sunday had an average of 5.45 runners in 59 races, compared to an average of 5.62 runners in 87 races in 2019, the last year racing was held at that venue.

Thursday’s seven-race program at Santa Rosa drew 39 runners, or an average of 5.57 runners before scratches.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets.

Santa Rosa does have turf racing, which is not available at Pleasanton and Sacramento. There is one turf race on Thursday’s program, the first race of any kind on the surface in Northern California since June 12, closing day of the Golden Gate Fields winter-spring meeting.

Bob Moreno, the racing secretary at Santa Rosa, said last weekend that he would like to use the turf course as many as “three or four” times a day, but cautioned that there may not be that much demand in Northern California compared to racing on the Southern California circuit.

Moreno said there are 100 horses based at Santa Rosa, with the rest of the runners from the circuit currently at Pleasanton and Sacramento until Golden Gate Fields reopens its barn area next week after a summertime renovation.

Prize money at Sonoma has increased since the 2019 meeting. A maiden special weight race will be worth $26,000, an increase of $2,000. An $8,000 claimer for non-winners of two will be worth $14,500 compared to $11,500.

There are two $75,000 stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf – Saturday’s Luther Burbank Handicap for fillies and mares, and the Robert Dupret Derby for 3-year-olds on Aug. 13. Those races were worth $50,000 in 2019.

Racing will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis, with first post times at 1:45 p.m. Pacific on most days and 2:15 p.m. on Fridays.