Life Isn’t Always Fair, Even When at a Fair

Racing at country fairs is becoming extinct in many parts of the country, but it still thrives in Northern California, where it blends big business with funky charm.

At the Solano Fair here, horseplayers can entertain themselves between races by taking a ride on a Ferris wheel or visiting a livestock exhibit. They might want to find such diversions too because the track facilities themselves are decrepit. Regulars at Solano swear that a bat used to swoop regularly around one of the betting areas. The quality of racing is inelegant too; most cards are dominated by events for cheap claimers, maidens and even cheap quarter horses.

Yet the fairs generate a stunning amount of business. California has an extensive intertrack and offtrack betting network, and 15 sites throughout the northern part of the state take bets on little Solano. The fair may handle more wagering in a day than a big-league track such as Laurel. A $2 million handle on a weekend is commonplace.

If a trainer wanted to cash a bet on a cheap horse -- one who couldn’t even qualify to run at a major-league track -- there would be no better place to do it than at a California fair. The betting pools would be big and the competition weak. These possibilities crossed Art Sherman’s mind when he was getting a rock-bottom maiden named Ryan Baker ready for a cheap race on opening day at Solano.

Sherman had claimed Ryan Baker last fall after he had given a couple of moderately respectable performances in maiden company. But on the day that Sherman shelled out $12,000 for the colt, he ran dismally, losing by 16 lengths. Ryan Baker ran once more for his new trainer, and lost by 19. “He bucked his shins when I claimed him,” Sherman said. “We ran him one more time and his shins popped out. I knew we’d have to give him some time off.”

Ryan Baker got three months rest, and when he resumed training Sherman was pleasantly surprised. “He’d had a chance to mature and he started training fairly well,” the trainer said. “He worked six furlongs in 1:14, and he was training decently enough to win on the bottom.” Sherman entered him for opening day and he wound up in the third race that, at Solano, is the first half of the daily double.

On the morning of the race, Sherman was having coffee with another trainer, Dennis Patterson, whose horses are stabled in a nearby barn. Patterson mentioned that he liked the chances of a filly he had entered in the fourth race, the second half of the daily double. Sherman could hear opportunity knocking.

He saddled Ryan Baker for the third race, then went to the betting windows. There were 10 minutes to post time, and the trainer was just getting ready to call out his wagers when the operation of the whole track suddenly came to a halt. Mutuel machines stopped humming. Lights went out. Somewhere, a high-voltage transmitter had blown, and the power for the whole fairgrounds was out.

At most tracks, the race would have been postponed until power was restored; there is no point running a race if people aren’t betting on it. But the on-track betting at Solano is but a fraction of the track’s business, and money was flowing smoothly from all of the off-track sites. So the third race would be run on schedule. The only people who couldn’t bet on it were the people who were watching it live.

Sherman has been a racing man long enough to know that the rest of the day’s events were foreordained; the gods of racing never miss a chance to play such a cruel trick of fate. “This is an omen,” the trainer said. “I know he’s a cinch to win.”

And, of course, he was. After spending half a year getting Ryan Baker ready to win this race, Sherman didn’t have a ticket in his pocket as he watched the colt stalk the leaders, swoop past them and win comfortably at odds of 7 to 2. Rarely had he felt such mixed emotions in the winner’s circle. And he knew it was also foreordained too when his friend’s horse won the next race and completed a $38.60 daily double.

When the daily double was official, power was promptly restored to the Solano Fair.