Santa Rosa goes fair-less for a week

This year’s racing meet at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, Calif., could prove pivotal.

The 11-day meet begins Thursday and includes three days of racing, on Aug. 14-16, after the conclusion of the Sonoma County Fair. Usually, the three-week meet runs concurrent with the fair. But the California Horse Racing Board granted a third week to the recently concluded State Fair meet at Sacramento, pushing back the Santa Rosa meet.

The Sonoma County Fair cut its ties to the California Authority of Racing Fairs two years ago and operates independently. The first year was successful, but last year business was down, resulting in a major purse overpayment of more than $200,000.

“Last year, things worked okay ontrack, but the out-of-state handle was way down,” said Richard Lewis, who serves as the fair’s director of racing.

The fair and the Thoroughbred Owners of California worked out a plan to make up for the overpayment over the next three years rather than institute a drastic cut in purses this year.

“It’s important to get into that deficit and cut it down,” Lewis said.

Joe Morris, president of the TOC, said: “Santa Rosa has always been a great partner. It was the first fair to put in a turf course. To try to get [the overpayment] all back in one year makes no sense.”

But it is still difficult for extremely short meetings such as the fair circuit meets to make up for overpayments.

Another hurdle the Santa Rosa meet must overcome is trying to fill lower-level races. Many of the horses who might run in those types of races at Santa Rosa just raced at Sacramento and may not be ready to run again.

At the insistence of the TOC, Santa Rosa is running seven stakes during the meet, each worth $50,000. Five of the stakes are scheduled for the turf course, which Lewis said is in good shape.

“With the elimination of Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows, we’ve lost stakes, so we want to preserve every stakes,” Morris said. “We’re concerned about stakes, but they also help in out-of-state and advance deposit wagering.”

Santa Rosa will offer free parking and admission for the three non-fair days at the end of the meet. The track also will have food trucks, music, and other promotions.

“It won’t be a fair event, but it will be an event to be here nonetheless,” Lewis said.