To say when the news broke about there being no horse racing this year at the Alameda County Fair in June and July was a shot to solar plexus is a vast understatement.

I have not written much because I don’t know what to say. I am having a hard time accepting the reality of having the Alameda County Fair take place with no racing.

And I am sure when the fair rolls around in June, it will be surrealistic for me to have no handicapping seminars, no interviews with the winning stakes connections in the winner’s circle — nothing.

It’s been over 40 years for me covering the races initially, then moving on to host all the seminars, putting contests, paddock tours … you name it. If it involved horse racing during the fair, there’s a good chance I was involved.

You can imagine the number of times people have reached out, asking what the heck is going on.

The person I have spoken the most with about racing over the last few months is another longtime Pleasanton resident, horse racing fan and friend: Allen Aldrich.

Aldrich is on the Fair Board of Directors and the Racing Committee. He has always been honest with me over the years when we talked about horse racing in Pleasanton.

There are times he calls to get my opinion on issues and there are a load of times I call him just to find out what’s going on.

After we saw a group of local horse racing fans make an appearance at a Fair Board meeting to try and save racing for this year, I didn’t think the timing was right and trying to rush something together at the last minute would hurt the sport rather than help it.

It was about that time Aldrich said the simple phrase — “Fair racing 2026”.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It’s going to be an uphill battle to get horse racing at the fair again and if it happens, it will take a well-prepared organization.

If we can work ourselves into getting a chance to run a meet during the fair again, it is going to be the last shot.

Take a year, dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s”. Make sure all the ducks are in a row and everything that needs to be done is in place.

Can it be done? Realistically it’s a pipe dream, but I think it’s worthy of a conversation over the course of a year to determine the practicality and probability.

There are people locally I trust and believe have everything it would take to give us a chance. Let’s make sure we do it with the right people.

Amador boys’ basketball

The Dons won a pair of games during the first week of the North Coast Section Division I playoffs, advancing to the semifinals.

In the first game the Dons beat Bishop O’Dowd 61-48. Chad Krueger and Jaylen Smith each had 13 points, with Brady McMillin hitting four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points.

That sent the Dons to round two where they got a 66-53 win over Northgate. Smith had 25 points to lead the Dons with Chad Krueger finishing with 18.

The Falcons already opened East Bay Athletic League play, rescheduling their league game with Granada due to a conflict with the Matadors’ spring break schedule.

And the Falcons started right where they left off, with a 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21 win.

Highlights came from Josh Salonga (52 assists, 9 digs, 5 kills, 2 blocks), Dean Caudill (19 kills, 14 digs, 13 service points), Jeremy Sun (15 kills, 12 digs), Cameron Hitchan (11 kills, 1 block) and Thomas Paduraru (10 kills, 6 blocks).

Amador girls’ soccer

The Dons won two games to advance to the semifinals. They opened the tournament with a 5-0 win over Heritage, then followed with a 3-0 win to advance to the semifinals.

No details on the two wins were submitted to the Weekly.

Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.