Turf racing returns to Northern California for three-week meet

The first turf racing in nearly two months in Northern California may help the Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa continue a modest trend of increased field sizes on the state’s fair circuit when the track’s three-week season begins on Friday.

Santa Rosa is the only track in Northern California with a turf course, following the permanent closure of Golden Gate Fields in Albany on June 9.

The turf course at Santa Rosa will see ample use through the nine-day season, which ends on Aug. 18. There are three turf races on Friday’s six-race program, which begins at 2:15 p.m. Pacific.

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Racing secretary Robert Moreno said last weekend that he expects to use the course an average of three or four times a day.

“It looks to be in good shape,” Moreno said of the surface.

Friday’s turf races, all run at a mile, have two fields of seven and one with nine entrants.

The brief meeting has two $75,000 stakes on turf at 1 1/16 miles – the Luther Burbank Stakes for fillies and mares on Saturday, and the Robert Dupret Derby for 3-year-olds on Aug. 10. The Burbank has 12 nominees, including six fillies and mares trained in Southern California by Phil D’Amato.

Unlike the last two years, when Santa Rosa raced on the first two weekends of August, this year’s season will extend to a third week, Aug. 16-18, even though the county fair exhibits conclude on Aug. 11.

Santa Rosa is the third venue on the five-track fair circuit. The Alameda county fair in Pleasanton had a four-week meeting in June and July that averaged 6.04 runners per race, a tiny increase from 5.97 in 2023.

The Cal-Expo Fair in Sacramento completed a three-week season on Sunday with 5.71 runners per race, an increase of 5.42 last year. Sacramento lost two days of racing because of excessive heat in recent weeks.

Later this summer and fall, fair meetings will be held in Ferndale and Fresno.

Moreno said he has a pool of approximately 800 available horses based at Santa Rosa and Pleasanton, which has stayed open for training following the conclusion of its fair meeting. Pleasanton will conduct a fall meeting beginning in late October to replace dates previously run at Golden Gate Fields.

Last year, Santa Rosa averaged 6.09 runners per race, a decline compared to 6.25 runners in 2022. The track’s 2020 and 2021 meetings were held at Golden Gate Fields because of the pandemic.

“If it goes well, I can equal last year,” Moreno said.

Jockeys Assael Espinoza, the leading rider at Golden Gate Fields and Sacramento, and Adrian Castellanos, who led the standings at Pleasanton, will ride at the meeting. Espinoza rode at Del Mar last summer.

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