Dead Heats
By R.E.Graswich
December 2025
What a pathetic year in local sports. The Cal Expo Board of Directors and California Horse Racing Board destroyed horse racing and set the stage for Sacramento State University to embarrass itself.
Two sleepy state bureaucracies blew opportunities to expand thoroughbred and harness racing in Sacramento. Instead, they set aside a slice of Cal Expo for Sac State’s football fantasies.
Cal Expo trustees played dumb while the horse racing board snuffed out race dates in Northern California. Then Cal Expo’s board agreed to create “Sacramento State Athletic Park” at the State Fair racetrack.
Cal Expo officials swallowed a sales pitch from Sac State President Luke Wood to build a football field where the winner’s circle and tote board enticed the public since 1968. Cal Expo must think Sac State football can resuscitate the fairgrounds.
How five college football games will compensate for six months of horse racing is unknown. My bet is the Hornets disappear into the vortex behind Hurley Way.
And Cal Expo gets sold for condos.
Like jazz and liverwurst, horse racing isn’t trending. It’s dead in NorCal. But racing’s ghosts occupy lots of real estate.
The state fairgrounds are about 350 acres. The racetrack and stables for 800 horses occupy about 120 acres. Sac State Athletic Park’s plans measure just 9.2 acres—less than 3% of Cal Expo.
But Sac State Athletic Park blows a hole in Cal Expo. The football field will make 111 acres redundant—a surplus of racetrack memories.
Cal Expo and the racing board killed a dwindling sport that’s still economically viable. Cal Expo’s harness season averaged 40 nights. Races were broadcast to 70 sites around the U.S. and Canada. The track handled $65 million in bets and employed about 600 people. State Fair thoroughbreds handled $25 million in nine days.
In canceling thoroughbreds at the State Fair, Cal Expo claimed there weren’t enough horses. But Cal Expo refuted its own argument when it dumped the winter harness meet, which had plenty of horseflesh.
Cal Expo CEO Tom Martinez didn’t explain how Sac State football would financially surpass horse racing. He mentioned a mandate to make sure Cal Expo “remains viable and can continue serving the people of California.”
Somehow, that translates into a new home for Sac State football at Cal Expo.
But Sac State already has a stadium on campus. By moving to the fairgrounds, Luke Wood and Cal Expo break the first rule of college sports: Keep events on campus.
Wood claims Cal Expo’s grandstand is a stone’s throw from Sac State. Sorry, Prez. The grandstand lies a meandering 3 miles away. It’s over the river and through the Wood.
Unlike Cal Expo, county fairs in Fresno and Ferndale fought to save horse racing. They tried to bring seven weeks of racing to their fairgrounds this year.
Moria Kenny, who runs Ferndale’s Humboldt County Fair, describes the jobs and money generated by her racetrack. “The financial contribution provided by horse racing brings in millions in revenue to the shops, restaurants and attractions throughout our county,” she says.
The state racing board didn’t care. It denied racing dates to Fresno and Ferndale.
The racing board euthanized itself in NorCal on the theory that California can’t support two horse racing circuits, north and south.
With NorCal racing gone, the sport reduces to three tracks, Santa Anita in Arcadia, Del Mar in San Diego County and Los Alamitos in Orange County.
Gov. Gavin Newsom appoints trustees for Cal Expo and the horse racing board. It’s unclear who those trustees serve. Track owners at Santa Anita? Gamblers in San Diego? Sac State’s president?
The California Horse Racing Board has been a Sacramento institution since 1977 when headquarters moved north from Los Angeles. Commissioners Nat Colley and Gray Davis forced the relocation. They said state agencies belonged here. Those were the days.
Two predictions for 2026: The racing board moves back to L.A. And Cal Expo’s board morphs into a condo association.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
