Sonoma County Fair racing
When: Where: Thursday-Sunday, Santa Rosa Aug. 9-12 Post time: 1:15 p.m., except 2:15 p.m. Fridays Thoroughbred stakes: Luther Burbank Handicap, Saturday; Robert Dupret Derby, Sunday; Joseph T. Grace Handicap, Aug. 11. All $50,000added going 11⁄16 miles on turf. Update: accompanied Officials by the opted fair instead for a two-week of two weeks season with the fair and one without as in the recent past. … The shorter season resulted in the elimination of the two stakes races for 2-year-olds. … Santa Anita track announcer Michael Wrona returns to call the fair races. … The turf course has been refurbished in an effort to correct the vast difference in times from the first half to the second half of previous meetings. … There are 12 grass races scheduled for the first three days of the meeting, including the Luther Burbank Handicap, which drew a field of nine fillies and mares. … The Robert Dupret Derby likely will have a smaller field when entries are taken Thursday. … Stakes events for other breeds are the $6,000 Wine Country Mule Sprint on Saturday; the $8,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Wine Country Handicap Quarter Horse on Aug. Derby 9; the on $10,000 Aug. 10; and the $6,000 Black Ruby Mule Challenge and the $12,000 Emirates Breeders California Gold Rush Handicap Series 2 for Arabians on Aug. 11. Dream Pearl and Sand Victor ran 1-2 in a similar race at the Alameda County Fair, but the order was reversed when they met at the State Fair. … Lavadia, who finished second in the $100,000 Campanile Stakes and won an allowance event going 1 mile on grass at Golden Gate Fields, shortens to 5 furlongs for Thursday’s eighth race. The 3-year-old filly is the 5-2 morning-line favorite despite facing older females for the first time in the allowance/optional $25,000 claimer. Elsewhere: Diversify, who has won nine of 14 starts and who ran fast throughout a front-running victory by 6½ lengths in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes, is the 7-5 favorite for the Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga. Crack sprinter Mind Your Biscuits, who won the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, is the 2-1 second choice as he tries 11⁄8 miles — the longest distance of his career.