Funds for Fairplex growth OK'd

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Thursday that will aid the Los Angeles County Fair in gaining financing to expand its racetrack at Fairplex Park from five furlongs to one-mile in circumference.

George Bradvica, equine manager of the Los Angeles County Fair, said the bill would divert a portion of the state's share of the takeout to pay for construction projects to expand the racetrack. The earliest the property would be expanded would be 2006, Bradvica said.

Bradvica said the expansion of the dirt track would cost an estimated $25 million, and the project would require the destruction of several buildings used as exhibit space for the county fair and the relocation of seven of the nine barns used to house horses for the Barretts sale.