It looks like the dream of keeping horse racing alive at the Humboldt County Fair is just barely hanging on by a thread, following today’s meeting of the California Horse Racing Board.

According to an excellent report on the Daily Racing Form’s website, the board voted 3-2 to deny the fair’s request for seven days on the racing schedule. But the board is currently short of members, and four votes are required to take definitive action on such a request.

One of the “yes” votes on the board — Oscar Gonzalez — encouraged the fair to try again once an empty commissioner’s seat is filled, the DRF reports.

Horse racing has long been the big cash cow for the Humboldt County Fair, which earns money not only from fairgoers but from off-track betting revenue. Continued racing dates for the fair are strongly opposed by Southern California interests, which would — openly, according to the DRF report — prefer to keep that money for itself.

In a letter to board members, James Morgan, the Humboldt County Fair’s general counsel, wrote:

Apparently, the south feels that already receiving 49 weeks a year of commissions generated from wagers placed in the north is somehow not enough. North-generated commissions have never gone to the south in the past during this late August time period and there is no justification in precluding HCPA from having a third week of racing just so the south can receive a windfall from money wagered in the north.

State senator Mike McGuire and Congressman Jared Huffman each wrote letters to the racing board, urging them to approve Humboldt’s dates.

Again: Read more at the Daily Racing Form.