Fresno starts season with nine-race card
The Big Fresno Fair begins a two-weekend season on Friday with a nine-race program at the final venue of the five-stop Northern California fair circuit.
The brief season at Fresno encompasses seven days of racing through Monday, and a three-day weekend from Oct. 13-15.
The two leading Thoroughbred races are $75,000 stakes - Saturday’s Harris Farms Stakes for California-breds at six furlongs, and the BullDog Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 15. Both races tend to draw support from Southern California-based stables.
Friday’s program, which begins at 1:45 p.m. Pacific, is led by an allowance race for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs that drew a field of six.
The final day of the season will include a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow pick six, which has a miniscule carryover of $972 for Friday’s program from the final day of the Humboldt county fair meeting in Ferndale on Aug. 27.
The bet was hit for $20,476 at Ferndale on Aug. 26. This year, fair meetings at Sacramento, Ferndale and Fresno co-hosted the bet, a format that was in use last year.
Earlier this year, the bet had a mandatory payout at the end of the Alameda county fair in Pleasanton in July. The Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa in August is not linked with the other fairs on the Rainbow pick six.
Last year, the Rainbow pick six drew a pool of $106,211 for a mandatory payout on the final day of the Fresno meeting.
The Rainbow pick six format is fading from California racetracks. For its current autumn meeting, Santa Anita has reverted to a $1 pick six format with a traditional carryover on days when no ticketholders have six winners. Del Mar officials have said they will do the same for their autumn meeting that begins next month.
Both tracks previous offered a Rainbow pick six.
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