NorCal racing

The folks who fought to preserve racing at the Northern California's remote half-miler in Ferndale deserve tremendous respect and credit for soldiering on to the bitter end. Make no mistake, the cessation of racing at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in the coastal region of NorCal definitely rates as "bitter." There is no sugarcoating this one like a sticky tuft of cotton candy from the midway of Humboldt County's charmingly rural fairgrounds, whose ties to the sport date to 1896. Advocates for racing at Ferndale (pop. 1,398), a Victorian village with...

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday voted down two separate proposals to allocate 2025 race dates to entities at Ferndale and Fresno that wanted to keep Thoroughbred racing going on the now-nonexistent Northern California circuit. The 4-3 votes on each measure dashed what appeared to be the last remaining hopes for a 2025 resuscitation of the sport in a region of the state that as recently as two summers ago boasted a year-round rotation of racing anchored by one commercial track and five fair venues. The June 19...

AUBURN, Wash.--The headline in the local edition of The Seattle Times on Wednesday, June 19, 1996 was full of elan as it fired off a bold prediction the day before the opening, "Racetrack Will Help Put Auburn On The Map." The building of Emerald Downs, which replaced the venerable and beloved oval at Longacres, was set to anchor development in the region and usher in a new era for the city which the paper said would attract "gamblers, shoppers and spectators." Some folks quoted were optimistic about the wiping away...

It now appears as if only two of the five tracks that ran summer fairs meets in Northern California in 2024 are willing to consider giving racing a go in 2025, exacerbating the racetrack fallout in that region that started when The Stronach Group ceased operations at Golden Gate Fields, the region's lone commercial track, last June. "Ferndale has expressed interest," Oscar Gonzales, the vice chair of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), said at Thursday's monthly board meeting. "They're trying to bring together the different components. Fresno, their fair...

As California begins transitioning the hub of the state's Northern circuit from the permanently closing Golden Gate Fields (June 9) to Pleasanton (June 12-July 9 and Oct. 16-Dec. 25, with other county fair meets running in between), the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday greenlit the first meet in the expanded NorCal schedule after hearing an optimistic update from Larry Swartzlander, the executive director for the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF). "What I'm really enthused about is the fact that we have 1,150 stall applications, which is 200...