Lower stakes during summer fair season
The summer fair circuit lost a day because of the heat — the Alameda County Fair canceled Thursday’s scheduled opening — and also has lost stakes races.
With betting handle that generates purses not reaching projections the past few years, the first three stops on the fair circuit offer nine stakes events in nine weeks — down from 12 in 2016 and 15 in 2015.
“We’re off a little bit, so we had to make some adjustments,” said Tom Doutrich, racing secretary for the California Authority of Racing Fairs. “The model we have in place to generate purse money is not enough to what’s needed. Maybe the state will look at it and see that we need help.”
Doutrich has scheduled three stakes races for the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton — down from five in 2016 and six in 2015.
The survivors are the two stakes for 2-year-olds (the Juan Gonzalez Memorial for fillies and the Everett Nevin Stakes for California-breds) and the Oak Tree Sprint. The Oak Tree Handicap (formerly the Alamedan) and the Pleasanton Oaks for 3-year-old fillies were dropped, joining the Oak Tree Distaff, which was eliminated last year.
“I looked at it categorywise, and we just had the All American Stakes at Golden Gate and there is the Joseph T. Grace Handicap at Santa Rosa, so taking out the Oak Tree Handicap for the same horses wasn’t that tough,” Doutrich said. “The 3-yearold filly race was tough, but we have a lot of 2-year-olds here now.”
The State Fair retains the Governor’s Handicap, which was run in 2016, but the Sonoma County Fair — which operates independently of CARF — has reduced its stakes schedule to five from six in 2016 and seven in 2015.
“If we could just have one week off before the fairs started and one week off after, that would help,” Doutrich said. “You make money from betting on simulcasts without having to pay out purses. We’re over-racing the calendar. It’s not the fairs vs. Golden Gate Fields; I want to see the region do well.”
Golden Gate Fields had 12 stakes in its 24-week winterspring season, which ended Sunday, after running eight in its eight-week fall season.
Despite a lot of rainy weather, the Golden Gate Fields winter-spring season experienced increases of 5.65 percent in on-track attendance and 3.44 percent in on-track betting — the biggest improvements since 2011.
Purses, however, remain stagnant at both Golden Gate Fields and the fairs.
“The costs of owning a horse have gone up, and the purses haven’t,” Doutrich said. “The economics of owning a horse just aren’t good. We’re lucky to have the people in it that we have right now.”