For one of the only times in its 129-year history, the Humboldt County Fair will be held in August without horse racing, after a divided California Horse Racing Board again voted against allocating dates at its meeting earlier this month.
“We have no chance at having racing during our fair,” Humboldt County Fair Association Board President Andy Titus told the Journal on May 20, after the association unsuccessfully researched ways to mount a legal challenge to the state board’s May 15 decision. “All options are off the table.”
With the horse racing industry having collapsed in Northern California over the past year, the Humboldt County Fair Association has been scrambling for months to go it alone and become the only fair in the northern part of the state to host meets this summer. Those efforts hit a major roadblock in April, when the association’s application for race dates to a short-handed California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), which had seats vacant due to a resignation and a board member absent, failed to garner the necessary four votes for approval. The association then redoubled its efforts, ironing out some logistical planning, and asked that its dates application be re-heard by the full board May 15, this time bringing trainers, a pair of Humboldt County supervisors and even a letter from Ferndale-raised celebrity chef Guy Fieri to help plead its case…