Harness dates awarded to Fresno
The California Horse Racing Board on Wednesday granted dates for a five-month daytime harness racing meeting at the Fresno fair tentatively scheduled from December 2026 to early May 2027.
No harness racing has been held in California since early May of this year at Cal-Expo in Sacramento after the board of directors at that state fair property terminated a lease agreement with the meeting's operators, Watch and Wager LLC.
Officials with Watch and Wager presented a proposal to the racing board on Wednesday to conduct racing at Fresno on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Earlier this month, Fresno and Watch and Wager officials completed a lease agreement for the 2026-2027 race meeting, according to documents on the racing board’s website.
Ed Comins, president of Watch and Wager, said the management of the Fresno meeting will be “similar” to what was presented at Cal-Expo.
“We want to get the show back on the road,” Comins said.
Harness racing at Cal-Expo was presented in the evenings. A move to daytime racing in a new market in Freso, located 170 miles south of Sacramento, will pose challenges, according to Chris Schick, general manager of Watch and Wager.
“This is not Cal-Expo,” Schick said. “The public has not wagered on Standardbreds at this track. We must race during the day since Fresno has no lights. That is kind of an unknown. It’s a gamble, for sure.”
Schick said that a majority of the horsemen who participated at Cal-Expo relocated to Minnesota during the summer, and that he and other officials with Watch and Wager have conducted recruiting efforts to draw horses to Fresno.
The racing board did not hold discussions at Wednesday’s meeting about potential Thoroughbred race meetings at county fair locations in Northern California for 2026.
Bernal Park Racing, funded primarily by owner and breeder George Schmitt, has proposed holding meetings at as many as five venues from early May to October. The racing board rejected Bernal Park’s request to have their proposal heard at Wednesday’s meeting, according to executive director Scott Chaney.
After consulting with racing board chairman Greg Ferraro, Chaney said Bernal Park’s proposal to be part of Wednesday’s hearing was “not complete enough to bring to the board.”
“We made suggestions to make it more complete,” Chaney said.
The racing board’s next meeting will be held in January. Ferraro did not attend Wednesday’s meeting and also missed meetings in September and October. Vice chairman Oscar Gonzales conducted Wednesday’s meeting.
There has been no racing in Northern California since last December. Golden Gate Fields in Albany, near Oakland, closed permanently in June 2024. No fair meetings were held earlier this year.
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