Humboldt County Marathon highlights Ferndale meet

It's California's shortest race meet and is run on the smallest track in the state, but there's something special about the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, which kicks off a six-day meet Friday.

“It's like being at a museum of racing,” says Larry Swartzlander, the executive director of the California Authority of Racing Fairs.

“Humboldt is an example of where racing came from, and it's really family oriented. It's the event of the year here.

“Racing got its start at fairs, and California is one of the last bastions of fair racing.”

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The track races Friday-Sunday for two consecutive weeks.

Races are run on a half-mile track, and the final race of the meet is Northern California's longest stakes, the 1 5/8-mile C.J. Hindley Humboldt County Marathon where horses pass the finish line four times.

The $20,000 purse doesn't begin to measure the interest regional horsemen have of winning the race.

Allen Aldrich won an Eclipse Award as part-owner of 2013 champion juvenile filly She’s a Tiger, yet he says he’s almost as proud of having won the 2012 Marathon with Blue Steel.

In recent years, trainers have claimed runners with the Marathon in mind.

Scott Herbertson won the 2016 Marathon with So Elite and the 2017 Marathon with Noble Nick after claiming each for $16,000. Noble Nick came into the Marathon off a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar and ran fourth in the Grade 2 Marathon at the Breeders' Cup after his Humboldt victory.

Herbertson ran second with $32,000 claim Defiantly last year when Engram, the longest shot on the board, won the race.

The Humboldt County Fair and Golden Gate Fields share some of the same dates but don’t target the same horses. The Humboldt County Fair cards most races for lower-end runners, and attracts smaller barns from Northern California and Oregon.