After closing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopening, local interests in Burns, Oregon are attempting to get Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing going again at the Harney County Fairgrounds in that rural, high-desert town, with the hope of regaining a three-date spot on the state's 2027 summer circuit.“The community is highly motivated to reinstate racing,” Oregon Racing Commission executive director Connie Winn said during the board's monthly meeting on Thursday.Ideally, Burns, a county-seat town of 2,700 that is known as the “gateway to the Steens Mountains,” would revert to its traditional late July meet, which it last conducted in 2019.The fairgrounds there has continued to host an annual five-day fair and rodeo around Labor Day.Given the erosion of racing throughout the Pacific Northwest and the total collapse of the neighboring Northern California fairs circuit, Oregon has defied the odds by tenaciously retaining a foothold on mixed-meet racing with a four-stop seasonal circuit.For 2026, Oregon will have race meets at:Union (Eastern Oregon Livestock Show): June 12-14.Grants Pass Downs: June 20, 21, 27, 28 and July 3-5.Prineville (Crooked River Roundup): July 15-18.Tillamook County Fair: Aug. 5-8.Grants Pass: Sept. 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28 and Oct. 4, 5, 11, 12.Winn reported at the Apr. 16 meeting that she and other commission staffers recently toured the fairgrounds to see what would be needed to get the facility in shape to host racing.“The list is long. These are the highlights,” Winn said.“Improving the track surface and overall condition. They have a very clay-rich track. And no work has been done on it in six years. They would probably need a lot of sand and other work on it to get it into shape,” Winn said.“They completely demolished their paddock and jockeys' room. So both of those would have to be rebuilt. And they need a starting gate. So they have some really big purchases,” Winn said.“On a plus, where the paddock and jockeys' room used to be, they've built a gigantic pole barn that can be multi-purpose for many different things. A portion of that is open on three sides. It could even be used as a really nice covered paddock, so it may not be as bad as it sounds,” Winn said.The post Closed for Seven Years, Harney County Fair in Oregon Seeks to Race in ’27 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.