By T. D. Thornton
The incessant, year-to-year squabbling over Thoroughbred race dates on the Northern California Thoroughbred circuit was believed to have been settled, at least for 2018, when the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) mandated a calendar of compromise on the region's racetracks and fairs-racing licensees at its Oct. 26 meeting.
Yet the controversy isn't over, because an item pertaining to “discussion and action” on 2018 NorCal race dates has once again resurfaced on the agenda for this Thursday's CHRB meeting.
“Subsequent to the [CHRB's] allocation of race dates, the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Fair (Santa Rosa) voted to operate a two-week fair [in 2018],” the CHRB informational packet for the Nov. 16 meeting stated. “As a result, the first week of racing will be run without a concurrent fair, contrary to the [CHRB's] understanding at the October meeting when the 2018 calendar for Northern California was discussed and subsequent action taken. Because of the change in circumstances, the [CHRB] will reconsider the allocation of those dates.”
The 2018 NorCal schedule that the CHRB voted in by a 4-0 unanimous vote at that Oct. 26 meeting was not radically different from the 2017 version. It once again gave Santa Rosa a three-week block of dates, but Santa Rosa's 2018 allotment from July 25-Aug. 14 was to have started one week earlier on the calendar than 2017.
According to the Sonoma County Fair website, the fair itself in 2017 ran from Aug. 3-13, and the racing at its Santa Rosa track was conducted Aug. 3-6, 10-13, and 18-20 (with that third block of race dates run after the fair itself had ceased for the season).
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