Humboldt officials to again request Ferndale racing dates from CHRB

For the second time this spring, officials with the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, Calif., will appear before the California Horse Racing Board in Sacramento on Thursday seeking racing dates for a late summer meeting.

On April 17, the board officially took no action on Humboldt’s request after a dates proposal was rejected by a vote of 3-2.

The board needed four votes to reach an official decision. The board had six members at the time, but commissioner Damascus Castellanos did not attend the meeting.

Since that meeting, California Gov. Gavin Newsom filled a vacancy on the seven-person racing board with the appointment on April 29 of Peter Stern, an executive with a San Francisco-based mobile workforce company.

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Greg Gomes, the first vice president of the Humboldt County Fair and chairman of the fair’s racing committee, said over the weekend that he and officials with the organization have lobbied racing board members in recent weeks to gain support for approval of racing dates.

“We’re trying our hardest,” he said. “We’re contacting the board members to see if we can change their votes, and what they are against.

“We’re hoping for the four votes.”

In recent weeks, fair officials have worked to secure financial backing for the meeting through an agreement with Bernal Racing, a partnership of horse owners and breeders John Harris and George Schmitt who are seeking to support racing in Northern California, Gomes said.

“We’re generating as much support as we can from horsemen, fans, and politicians,” Gomes said. “We’re trying to take the best shot we can.”

Humboldt is seeking racing dates for three weekends from mid-August to Sept. 1.

Humboldt officials face opposition from Southern California racing as well as from some members of the racing board. Del Mar, which operates a summer meeting held simultaneously to the Humboldt fair, and the Thoroughbred Owners of California opposed Humboldt’s request at the April meeting, saying they did not want simulcast revenue from throughout the state to be diverted from Del Mar to the benefit of the Humboldt fair.

Currently, no racing is scheduled in Northern California. Golden Gate Fields in Albany closed permanently last June. A replacement meeting at Pleasanton last fall failed to generate sufficient business. Fair meetings are not scheduled this summer or fall at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, or Fresno.

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