California State
Fair to host Harness Racing
Thursday, March 24, 2005 - by Nicole
Kraft
Harness racing has a home in
Sacramento through the end of 2005, as the California Horse
Racing Board today approved a bid by the State Exposition to
conduct harness dates during the California State Fair.
The California Exposition, better known as Cal Expo, will
operate the harness meet from July 31 through Sept. 17, with
State Fair racing held Aug, 12 through Sept. 5. The
Sacramento Harness Association would assume control of the
meet to run Sept. 23 through Dec. 18.
Director of racing for the fair meet will be Dave Elliott,
who got his start in California racing as a horseman. He
said the fair session will guarantee purses $60,000 a night
in purses over a minimum of 26 live racing dates.
“This will allow the harness horsemen to participate in
Sacramento on a year round basis,” said Elliott of the plan.
“It will also enable the harness people to race their horses
in front of crowds, since we do one million people [in
racing attendance] during state fair. We want to provide
exposure of sport in the Sacramento market during fair
time.”
The CHRB will reconvene at the end of the year to address
the allocation of dates for 2006.
