Rebecca Clayton, 11, of Yuba City was crowned Mini-Miss Yuba-Sutter at the bi-county fair Thursday.

Her stage arts presentation was a dramatic soliloquy the judges apparently liked.

Carly Cervantes, 10, of Yuba City was selected Miss Strawberry Festival.

Alexandria Mazerolle, 12, of Marysville was named first-runner up to Clayton. And Tara McManus, 11, of Yuba City, I believe, was picked second runner-up.

Handicappers had it tough in this race. The 12 candidates were all pretty good, with three of them charting out to be close, according some seasoned selectors.

Touts and tipsters seemed evenly split on three strong front-runners. For while it seemed to spectators that those three were running neck-and-neck,

But in the end it was a darkhorse contestant who hadn't been spotted by many of the selectors who came in on the outside to win by a nose.

Me? I had my money on a longshot filly that showed in the money, so I was content to cash in my betting slips and count my modest winnings.

But then I started hearing that the pageant organizers had counseled the young contestants before the ace not to believe the complaints they would be sure to hear afterwards that the race had been fixed.

Whoa! Now that was strange. It hadn't occurred to me there might such a problem. But, if the organizers were talking it up, didn't that suggest something was afoot?

People don't usually say, "If you hear the door bell ring, ignore it!" unless they have a reason to expect a process server.

Now, the nervous organizers have gotten fans reexamining the last race in a brand new light. They've managed to create doubts by the raising fears themselves.

Having thought about it, I think I know the problem, and who to solve it.

The pageant process is currently structured in a way that simply begs suspicion. Half of it is held in secret and the records are locked away. When the decisions made in the public part of it can't be made to square with common sense, the natural tendency is to suspect the worst.

It seems to me that publicly posting the results at the halfway mark would go a long way to allay doubts and suspicions.

In a horse race, for example, the field announcer calls the action all the way though. From up in the box he describes for the fans, which horses are leading when they’re all bunched up over in the far corner and fans in the stands can't clearly make out the order.

That's why none of the fans and horse owners are terribly shocked when they learn which horses are running in the money as the pack spreads out in the final stretch.

Anyway, as I said, my filly came in third in the bettors' Holy Trinity, win-place-and-show, so I'm happy.