Horse racing at the Humboldt County Fair. Photo: Redwood Coast, via Flickr. Creative Commons license.

###

PREVIOUSLY

###

A few minutes ago, the California Horse Racing Board voted 4-3 to deny a request from the Humboldt County Fair Association to approve three weeks’ worth of horse racing dates for the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale this August.

The decision, which appears to represent the end point of a total collapse of sanctioned horse racing in Northern California, brings a halt to 129 years of horse racing at the Humboldt County Fair.

The board’s vote came despite letters of support from numerous elected officials, including Rep. Jared Huffman, California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Chris Rogers, as well as celebrity chef Guy Fieri, a Ferndale native. 

This story will be updated with details from the meeting. 

###

UPDATE, 3:28 p.m.:

California’s horse racing industry has struggled mightily in recent years amid dwindling attendance, stagnant purses, competition from online sports gambling and public concerns over animal welfare, among other factors. 

Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley closed last summer after 83 years. Golden State Racing, a consortium of owners, breeders and trainers, was formed in an effort to fill the void. But following a $1 million fiscal loss at its first meet, the entity collapsed. Late last year, the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF), a joint powers authority representing all Northern California fair meets except Santa Rosa’s, announced that it would not pursue any horse racing applications this year, though it said individual county fairs could apply on their own. 

So the Humboldt County Fair Association (HCFA) did just that, and a number of influential locals made the drive to Sacramento to appeal directly to the CHRB today, to no avail. HCFA Board Chair Andy Titus and attorney Jim Morgan led the association’s presentation, arguing passionately on behalf of the longstanding local tradition.

Their business plan involved partnering with a newly formed company called Bernal Park Racing, LLC, which is generously financed by wealthy racehorse owner George Schmitt and owner/breeder John Harris. According to Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn, that duo had offered to put $1.5 million in the bank to finance the local horse racing bid.

“I feel like the team in Humboldt is the voice for the North; Bernal Park racing is the voice for the North,” Titus said to the California Horse Racing Board. He said that the $1 million that would be handed out in purses (a figure based on last year’s record proceeds) would go a long way toward supporting the trainers, owners and breeders in NorCal while providing an essential social and economic boost to the region.

Schmitt said he and Harris have put their money where their mouth is, adding, “We believe that it’s critical, not just for horse racing, but for the fairs themselves to succeed.”

Morgan sought to assure the board of the security of the HCFA’s business plan, saying that unlike Golden State Racing, the Humboldt County Fair is an independent, county-owned operation with 129 years of successful horse racing.

“Last year was the first time that we had three weeks without overlap, without shared commissions,” Morgan said. “We generated approximately $1 million in commissions and purses. … And the million dollars in commissions is sufficient to sustain an independent racing venue.”

Morgan compared the economic impact in Humboldt to that of the Kentucky Derby in the Bluegrass State. Come fair time, he said, “The hotels are full, the restaurants are full, the shops are full. The supervisors of our county have estimated that over $7 million in revenue goes to this county for this fair, hosted in a town of 1,500 people, in a county of 130,000 people. It’s huge for the economic impact of this community.”

He also sought to reassure the board that racing at this end of the state would not represent a threat to operations at Del Mar, which is as far away from Ferndale as it is from El Paso, Texas. 

But board member Dennis V. Alfieri remained unconvinced. “You have an unknown entity, an unknown operator,” he said. “I’m concerned about operations, this willy-nilly put things together — I’m very concerned. I’m uneasy with this entity.”

Bill Nader, president and CEO of Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), argued against board approval of race dates in Ferndale. His organization’s stated mission is to “maximize purse revenues and preserve the long-term viability of our sport,” and he said California has limited resources. 

“We need to be very careful with how we govern and how we go forward to protect and preserve California racing,” Nader said, noting that the industry’s income in the state comes entirely from parimutuel wagering.

His organization is not anti-Northern California, he insisted, but the results speak for themselves.

“I think we can all agree that the decision to license Golden State Racing for race dates last year was a sincere attempt to give the North an opportunity to see, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how the market would respond,” he said. “Now we know the results, and it wasn’t pretty.”

He argued that the industry needs to focus all of its efforts in Southern California for the time being as a matter of simple survival.

“We are not playing with house money; there is no house money,” Nader said. “The California horse racing industry, at every corner, is fighting to survive, fighting to rebuild, fighting to regain its status. And here in 2025 we are now doing that.”

Nader argued that most horseracing professionals have already made the transition to Southern California, and he said the industry needs to focus on the newly formed consolidated California Circuit, rather than sharing any revenues.

“While we all appreciate the great attributes of the Humboldt County Fair, we cannot support a transfer of funding from the California horse racing industry participants to the Humboldt County Fair — not now, when we are finally moving in the right direction … ,” Nader said. “Consolidation was not really a choice for California racing. It was driven out of desperation. The North and South were sinking and sinking fast when compared to other states across the country. The downward spiral was real, and it had to be reversed.”

After a brief break, the board allowed public comment, and nearly all of it was in favor of Humboldt County’s bid.

Bohn read a letter from Guy Fieri, who wanted to appear in person but was filming in Texas, according to Bohn. Fieri’s letter spoke to the “beautiful tradition” that has become part of the fabric of Humboldt and surrounding counties.

“To put it very bluntly, taking this meet away from Ferndale could be a bullet to the heart of the fair and our community,” Bohn quoted from the letter.

For his own part, Bohn rejected the implication that the Humboldt County Fair is insignificant. “The hell we are,” he said, adding that it was this end of the state that launched a breeding program for racehorses. 

Humboldt County Fair Association board member Cindy Olsen told the board, “Today is the most important day of the Humboldt County Fair’s 129 year history,” adding that our local fair is “the smallest racing fair with the biggest heart.”

Second District Humboldt County Supervisor Michelle Bushnell also appeared in person. “The horses are not just athletes to us,” she said. “They are family members, companions and partners in our journey. We cherish the bond we share with them and with our neighboring horse racing community.”

Bushnell told the board about how she and her fellow supervisors approved a $1 million funding request for emergency repairs to the fairground grandstands, which were damaged in the December 2022 earthquake. (The county was later reimbursed by California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services with just over $836,200 of that amount, reducing the county’s contribution to about $164,000.)

“This is about more than just horses running around a track,” Bushnell said. “It’s about creating jobs, supporting local businesses and encouraging families to participate in a tradition that has been part of our identity for so long.”

Trainers, owners and breeders also spoke to the importance of the Ferndale races, with owners saying horses at their stable operations have been leaving the state, creating a downward trend in breeding that could lead to disaster not just for “horsemen” in Northern California but the entire state. 

Late in the hearing, word came to the board that Senator McGuire was on the phone and hoping to address them, but legal counsel said that since the meeting had been agendized as an in-person event, such communication was not legally permissible. 

When the board finally cast its votes, three “no” votes came first (from board members Thomas C. Hudnut, Damascus Castellanos and Alfieri), followed by three “yes” votes (Peter Stern, Brenda Washington Davis and Oscar Gonzales), leaving Chair Gregory L. Ferraro as the decided vote. 

“Chairman votes no,” he said.

Reached by phone after the meeting, Bohn said the result was disappointing, to say the least. 

“Del Mar controlled it,” he said, adding that an antitrust lawyer in Philadelphia will “look everything over” and see if there’s a legal case that might salvage the efforts to save horse racing at the Humboldt County Fair. But he admitted that all remaining efforts have a snowball’s chance of success, at this point.

“I was really proud to represent Humboldt and [of] all the people who showed up and talked about the 129-year tradition,” Bohn said. “It’s disheartening because there were people [on the board] who already had their mind made up. There were a couple we thought we could sway but we didn’t. It’s just sad. I was proud of Humboldt for showing up.”