This is the twenty first of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a final look at the closed harness racing tracks of California.
California –
Shasta Agricultural Park
The one mile track located in San Jose was operated from 1860 to 1900, Adbell established a yearling Trotters mile record time of T2:23.0TT there on 27 September 1894.
Sonoma Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa
The one mile harness racing track at the Sonoma Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa operated for various periods between opening in 1879 and closure in 1970.
The Sonoma County Agricultural Park Association purchased eighty three acres at the present fairgrounds location in 1879 from the estate of Dr John Hendley for $5,600. They constructed a one mile long, thirty nine foot wide track, stall and grandstand primarily for harness racing. The economic recession in the 1890’s forced the Association to sell the track and fairgrounds to two resident San Francisco brothers Ira and Frank Pierce who converted the property into a horse breeding and training farm, located on the site of the present day Grace Pavilion.
Approximately around the same time harness racing occurred in Petaluma (just south of Santa Rosa) at Kenilworth Park in the early 1900’s. Champion trotting mare Lou Dillon, T1:58½TT, was born at the Santa Rosa stock farm owned by the Pierce’s. She was trained and driven for them by Millard Saunders. She became the first trotter to break through the magical two minute barrier when setting her mares and overall trotter’s mile record of T1:58½TT at Billings Park, Memphis, Tennessee on 24 October 1903 (fastest trotter of 1903; also 1904 T2:01.0TT).
A group of Santa Rosa businessmen including merchant Ney Donovan and his hop broker brother CC Donovan purchased the fairgrounds with plans to reintroduce horse racing as a key element of a county fair. Whilst interrupted by World War I, events were held in 1913 and 1914, cancelled in 1915, 1916 and 1917 and reintroduced again from 1918 to 1921. In 1922 the California state legislative banned horse racing.
It wasn’t until 1933 that the Californian legislative approved pari mutual betting on horse racing with a percentage of revenues set aside for educational, agricultural and livestock aspects of a fair. This enabled a new group of civic leaders including Joseph T. Grace, Ernest Finley, Emil Kraft (inaugural General Manager of Sonoma County Fair) and V.G. Garrett to rekindle the idea of an annual agricultural and livestock fair. In just three months civic leaders planned and constructed fifteen barns and a new grandstand in time for the first fair, a five day event opened on 8 October 1936. There were two tracks – a three quarters of mile track for thoroughbreds and a one mile oval for standardbreds. An estimated 70,000 people attended, attracted by the six daily horse races that included running (thoroughbred), trotting and pacing events. Betting totalling $20,100 was the fourth highest in California.
Horse racing proved very popular in the early years of World War II with betting increasing to $281,282 in 1941 and up to $430,444 in 1942. The US Army gradually took over the fairgrounds during the war years with horses racing for war bond purses and additional race days to benefit the US forces.
A new grandstand with a roof constructed in 1948 doubled seating capacity to 4,500 to cater for increasing demand with the number of races increased to eight thoroughbred and four harness events daily except on Sundays. The daily double was introduced in 1950 along with betting on quarter horses. Bleacher seating was expanded in the grandstand in 1952 to seat an additional 2,000 patrons.
Until the early 1950’s there were four harness races a day at the Sonoma County Fair. For example in 1951 there were eight days of racing at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds with eleven races daily – a quarter horse race, two races for harness horses and eight races for thoroughbreds. A chute was constructed at the head of the three quarter mile thoroughbred track to accommodate larger fields (previously maximum of eight, increased to ten) and allow seven furlong races whereby the field passed the stands on two occasions to complete the distance.
The dual track set up was changed in 1955 to one track of 13/16ths of a mile and 80 feet wide for both thoroughbreds and standardbreds. Betting had increased to pass $2m the same year together with further enlargement of the grandstand. In 1961 a new steel frame grandstand replaced the wooden structure that had suffered fire damage in 1960. The track was extended to just a few feet short of a mile in 1968. Betting increased further during the 1960’s and early seventies, exceeded the $3m mark in 1961, $4m in 1963, $6m in 1969 and over $8m in 1974. In 1970 harness races were discontinued at the fair in favour of Appaloosa races.
Simulcasting of races by the late 1980’s was influencing betting revenues and in 1987 Sonoma County Fair began taking simulcast racing from tracks such as Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows. Two years later horse races from Sonoma County Fair were being beamed into other tracks. Revenue from off track betting was significant although split with the host track. Crowd attendances began to decrease as a result however.
In 1993 the fair opened its Jockey Club which offers year round satellite betting.
At the same time the VIP experience of the Turf Club offering table service for food and beverage opened. Premier meetings such as the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont or Breeders Cup races attract additional admission fees.
In 2005 a major $3m project added a new turf track and golf course to the fair. The turf track is positioned inside the existing dirt oval with relatively sharp banked turns in its seven eighths mile circumference. The turf track has attracted more horses and greater betting. In 2007 Sonoma and Solano County fairs combined their horse racing schedules with three weeks at Santa Rosa (Sonoma) and one week at Vallejo (Solano).
The Sonoma County Fair gained an additional five days of thoroughbred and mixed breed racing when Solano County Fair ceased horse racing altogether in 2010. In 2011, there were fifteen race days during the annual Sonoma County Fair. Covid – 19 restrictions in 2021 meant that while the traditional Sonoma County Fair could not be held, in conjunction with Golden Gate Fields, Sonoma County Fair still managed to host its 2021 Wine Country Racing Horse Meeting.
The Sonoma County Fair races remain a premier racing venue on the Northern California fair circuit. The Fair’s Jockey Club hosts an off track racing operation at the county fair offering a comfortable venue for satellite betting.
Vallejo Driving Park
The Vallejo Driving Park operating at the Solano County Fairgrounds opened in 1886 on a half mile track. Upgraded to a one mile facility in the early 1900’s continuing to offer fairground racing until 2010 when racing ceased.
The Solano Race Place at the Solano County Fairgrounds offers simulcast racing from around the world providing more than seventy screens and monitors, private tables and outdoor patios, bar and restaurant facilities.
Woodland
The one mile Woodland track in California operated from 1891 until early in the twentieth century.
Next ArtIcle : Indiana – part one
Peter Craig
15 February 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
