{"id":150165,"date":"2026-01-26T16:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/150165\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:43:07","slug":"horse-racing-returning-to-fresno-fairgrounds-at-end-of-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/150165\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse Racing Returning to Fresno Fairgrounds at End of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/screenshot-2026-01-26-075730-300x167.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-76563\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014 Fresno could soon be home to California\u2019s only venue for harness racing, a type of horse racing where the riders are pulled in lightweight two-wheeled carts called sulkies, instead of on horseback.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Fresno Fair announced Friday that there will be 38 race dates from December 2026 through May 2027, primarily on Saturdays and Sundays, pending a final race license approval expected in September.<\/p>\n<p>That means, unlike the prior horse racing at the fairgrounds, these events will not take place during the run of the fair in early October.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Fresno Fair Board approved a two-year lease last November with Watch and Wager, a California Horse Racing Board-approved racing operator.<\/p>\n<p>The Fair says the agreement brings an interim event that will increase year-round use of the Brian I. Tatarian Grandstand, offer in-person racing and wagering opportunities for the community and create economic benefits for the Fairgrounds and the city.<\/p>\n<p>Harness racing is a dynamic form of horse racing featuring Standardbred horses that pull lightweight two-wheeled carts called sulkies, guided by skilled drivers rather than mounted jockeys.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014 Fresno could soon be home to California\u2019s only venue for harness racing, a type&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-150165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}