For one of the only times in its 129-year history, the Humboldt County Fair will be held in August without horse racing, after a divided California Horse Racing Board again voted against allocating dates at its meeting earlier this month.
“We have no chance at having racing during our fair,” Humboldt County Fair Association Board President Andy Titus told the Journal on May 20, after the association unsuccessfully researched ways to mount a legal challenge to the state board’s May 15 decision. “All options are off the table.”
With the horse racing industry having collapsed in Northern California over the past year, the Humboldt County Fair Association has been scrambling for months to go it alone and become the only fair in the northern part of the state to host meets this summer. Those efforts hit a major roadblock in April, when the association’s application for race dates to a short-handed California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), which had seats vacant due to a resignation and a board member absent, failed to garner the necessary four votes for approval. The association then redoubled its efforts, ironing out some logistical planning, and asked that its dates application be re-heard by the full board May 15, this time bringing trainers, a pair of Humboldt County supervisors and even a letter from Ferndale-raised celebrity chef Guy Fieri to help plead its case.
After close to two hours of discussion and testimony, the matter came to a roll call vote from the board. Board members Thomas C. Hudnut and Dennis Alfieri, both of whom had voted against allocating the dates in April, voted no. They were joined by Board Member Damascus Castellanos, who had been absent in April and whom the fair association had targeted as a potentially sympathetic swing vote, all by assuring the application’s failure. Board members Brenda Washington Davis and Oscar Gonzales voted to support the fair’s application, and were joined by newly seated Board Member Peter Stern. That left Board Chair Gregory Ferraro, an outspoken skeptic of the wisdom of granting the Humboldt County Fair race dates, as the swing vote, and he quickly sealed the application’s fate: “Chairman votes no,” he said without pause.
Gonzales, who’d repeatedly voiced support for granting the Humboldt County Fair racing dates as a way to throw the sport a lifeline in Northern California by supporting a community institution, then called the vote a “serious, serious, serious mistake” and asked CHRB Executive Director Scott Chaney about the possibility of calling a special meeting to again take up the application. Ferraro quickly quelled that notion, indicating he has the power to veto requests for special or emergency meetings and would do so in this case.
Humboldt County First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, who’d addressed the board and read aloud a letter from Fieri, later told the Lost Coast Outpost he was consulting with an antitrust lawyer in Philadelphia about mounting a legal challenge to the board’s decision, and Titus confirmed to the Journal the association was looking at all possibilities. But those had apparently been exhausted by May 20, when Titus told the Journal the matter was settled, and the fair will proceed without races.
The fair association faced criticism on two fronts: the board and industry interests.
Some questioned the association’s ability to put on races with much of the industry having departed Northern California in the wake of the closure of Golden Gate Fields last summer, and the ensuing collapse of the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) and its Golden State Racing venture intended to fill the void left by the Alameda County track’s closure, wondering aloud if it would be able to draw the horses, trainers and support staff — and find the equipment — needed to put on a meet.
Representing the association at the meeting, Titus assured the board it had received lots of interest from horse owners and trainers about coming to Ferndale in August, and was confident it had the personnel lined up to put on a successful meet. The association also had the deep-pocketed backing of a new outfit, Bernal Park Racing, LLC, founded by owner-breeders George Schmitt and John Harris, who had deposited $1.5 million into an account to cover the meet’s expenses, brought decades of experience to the effort and had pledged to take on all financial liability that would come with the endeavor.
“John Harris and I put our money where our mouth is,” Schmitt told the board, explaining Bernal Park’s goal of becoming a replacement for CARF, which had traditionally supported fairs throughout Northern California with the logistical and financial hurdles of holding race meets. “We believe it’s critical not only for horse racing but for the fairs themselves to succeed, and organizations like Future Farmers of America and 4-H to continue to educate our young people on how our world works, where our food comes from, how hard it is to raise the food that’s put on our plates every day.”
Other comments before the board focused on the vital nature of the Humboldt County Fair to the local economy, with Bohn saying the annual event generates millions of dollars in economic activity and, reading from Fieri’s letter, saying that denying the race dates “would be a bullet to the heart of the fair community.”
But, as became evident in the CHRB’s April meeting, some on the board and in the racing industry viewed the dates question as about much more than what race meets would do for the local fair or the Humboldt County economy. Many noted the industry statewide is struggling mightily, facing declining popularity and struggling to compete in a much-expanded world of online sports betting. (It went unmentioned during the hearing, but the sport has also faced a growing outcry from animal welfare groups, including after two horses were euthanized for injuries sustained at the Humboldt County Fair last year.)
Currently, the industry has consolidated in what’s been described as a “single circuit” in Southern California, with a significant portion of owners and trainers from the northern part of the state having relocated south in recent months. While Titus and numerous others charged that consolidation is not working for Northern California owners and trainers, the industry’s largest voices disagreed.
Bill Nader, president and CEO of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, cast the decision of whether to allocate dates to Humboldt — which would move about $2 million in purses and simulcast commissions north — as a choice between supporting the best interest of the sport in the state as a whole and helping to finance a single county fair. The industry has consolidated in the south because it was on the brink of collapse statewide, Nader said, arguing that it is now showing signs of life but remains fragile.
Some on the Humboldt County Fair Association Board, including Titus and Racing Committee Chair Greg Gomes, have argued that the fate of the fair itself was tied to racing, painting a potentially bleak picture for the path ahead. A financial report presented to the board April 28 shows the association had a balance of $460,000 in its accounts — enough to last about two months without an additional influx of funds — meaning the association needs to turn a substantial profit at this year’s event to carry it into 2026.
While the association has never been able to quantify it with hard numbers, many believe horse racing has served as the proverbial rising tide that lifts all ships at the fair, saying it is a major attendance driver, boosting revenue from parking, the carnival, concessions and the bar. Whether the association has contingency plans in place to draw attendance without racing — especially with it looking increasingly like the fair will not feature dairy and poultry shows due to the avian flu outbreak — remains to be seen with the fair fast approaching, Aug. 16 through Aug. 24.
Meanwhile, as the Journal went to press May 20, rumors circulated that the fair association may apply again for race dates, this time to hold a meet in October. Asked whether that’s the case, Titus said simply, “The board hasn’t talked about that.”
The fair board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is May 27.
Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 105, or thad@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in ‘God Looking Back at You’.
