Trainers seek three-peats at Ferndale

Three could be a prominent number when the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, Calif., opens a six-day meet on Friday. Trainers Quinn Howey and Melanie McDonald both will be seeking three-peats at Ferndale’s 119th race meeting.

Howey will be gunning for his third straight Thoroughbred training title at the half-mile bullring. In 2013, he won with 16 of 29 starters and saw 25 of his runners hit the board. Last year, he captured the title with eight winners from 32 starters.

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McDonald will try to saddle her third straight winner of the meet’s signature race, the 1 5/8-mile C.J. Hindley-Humboldt County Marathon, during which runners cross the finish line four times. McDonald won the 2013 edition with A Thousand Aces and last year’s with Mahogany Run.

Three previous Ferndale riding champions will be riding at the meet, which will have its deepest jockey colony ever.

Joe Crispin, last year’s champion, Hugo Herrera (2013), and Chris Russell (2011) will be joined by Jesus Velazquez, last year’s top Thoroughbred rider; Barrington Harvey, the overall runner-up in 2011 and 2012; and Carlos Madeira, riding here for the first time since 2000, when he finished second in the jockeys’ race.

More than 200 runners are expected to occupy stalls at Ferndale.

Since last year’s meet, the second turn has been widened and has been banked.

The meet will mark the race-calling debut of Chris Griffin, who has announced drag-racing events and served as play-by-play announcer for the Harlem Globetrotters.