Things are pretty upbeat these days in New Kent, VA, where Colonial Downs will open its 2025 meet on July 9.

Days are up, purse money’s up, and the stars could be aligning for a big meet.

“We’re gonna have a full barn area, and that’s always a positive thing going into a race meet,” said Colonial’s senior director of racing, Frank Hopf. “I think there’s just a lot of excitement from the horsemen and the players and everyone locally that the season is starting up again.”

This past March, the track hosted its first Virginia Derby on dirt, and the race was awarded 50 Kentucky Derby points by Churchill Downs Inc., which owns both the Kentucky Derby and Colonial Downs. That made it essentially an automatic qualifier to the Run for the Roses.

American Promise won the Virginia Derby easily, and while he didn’t fare very well in Kentucky, finishing 16^th, he did turn out to be training legend D. Wayne Lukas’ final Kentucky Derby starter. Lukas passed away at the end of June.

That three-day meet did a lot to create excitement about Colonial locally and nationally. That’s momentum the track hopes to build on.

“Coming off the new March meet that we had, and working hard since March to get ready for this race season,” Hopf noted. “So a lot of excitement coming up and looking forward to get going.”

One thing that should help this meet: there’s no racing in Maryland this summer until the brief Timonium stand at the end of August. That opens the door to a lot of jockeys, horsemen, and horses who might otherwise have stayed home finding their way to Virginia.

One rider they’ll find waiting for them when they get there: Ben Curtis, who in 2024 led all jockeys at the meet by wins and came in second by purse earnings. Curtis won 24 races last summer in New Kent, generating nearly $1.4 million in purse earnings. He is named on seven horses on the opening day card and a dozen more the rest of the weekend in hopes of a fast start.

“It always helps when you hit the ground running, and you can get a couple of winners in earlier. You know, in this job there’s a snowball effect,” the Irish-born Curtis said. “If you ride winners early, it seems to really carry on through the meat. So I’ve worked hard everywhere trying to breeze horses for different trainers. Obviously, coming back to Colonial, had a lot of success for trainers up there. And my agent has worked very hard trying to drum up some business.”

Repeating won’t be easy, however. Last year’s meet leader by earnings, Mychel Sanchez, also returns. He finished one win behind Curtis and is named on 20 horses opening weekend. Antonio Gallardo, the 2023 meet leader, also is back and named on 17 horses during the opening stand.

Throw in Maryland veterans like Horacio Karamanos – who’s had enormous success at Colonial over the decades – Victor Carrasco, a 19-race winner at Colonial a year ago, and turf ace Jorge Ruiz, and you’ve got the makings of another down-to-the wire jockey race.

On the training side, Maryland-based Mike Trombetta led Colonial in starts, wins, and purse earnings last season for the second straight year. It looks like he’s loaded for bear this year, too: Trombetta will send out 18 horses over the first four days of the meet.

And Michael Stidham, who has won or shared three meet titles since Colonial reopened, will send out 10 horses opening weekend, including six on Friday.

One of the new faces they’ll see there is that of Kenny McPeek. McPeek started just five horses at Colonial Downs last year. He is scheduled to start that number in the meet’s opening weekend this time around.

“We’re sending a whole side of a barn there,” the trainer said. “I think you’ll see us win a lot of races there this year.”

Will 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan be among them? McPeek hasn’t said one way or the other, but it may not be completely out of the realm of possibility, because the trainer is considering trying the son of Goldencents on the turf.

“I think his pedigree says that he would like it,” McPeek said. “I mean, he’s such a natural talent. He’s a horse that’s made very much like a Northern Dancer type, which, obviously, he was a great stallion on the grass.”

Mystik Dan most recently finished fourth, beaten 2 ½ lengths by winner Mindframe, in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on the dirt at Churchill Downs. That race was June 28; Colonial’s biggest grass race, the Grade 1 Arlington Million, is August 9.

Trainer Ferris Allen is another hoping to have a productive meet in New Kent. Allen was a dominant force during the first era of Colonial Downs, winning the training title five times between 2000 and 2013 and usually finishing second in the years he didn’t win. Though he’s done well since the track reopened in 2019, his barn scuffled through a two-win meet last year and is hoping for redemption now.

“We had a slumping year there last year, and we’ve retooled as best we can to avoid that from happening again,” Allen explained. “You know, Colonial has been very good to us over the years, and we’re looking to improve on that standing this year.”

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The key to that will, of course, be horsepower. “Quality horses follow the money, and as the purse money has increased at Colonial, so has the quality of racing,” he said.

Allen is hoping that some of his two-year-olds will blossom this summer, along with some veterans, to propel him back towards the upper reaches of the standings.

One thing’s for sure: he and everyone else around Colonial Downs are excited about the meet. This summer it’s 41 days of live racing, the most since 2008 (45 days), and purses are better than ever before. Open maiden special weight races, for example, carry a $70,000 purse, while Virginia-restricted maidens go for $87,500 – far exceeding other Mid-Atlantic tracks.

And an agreement with Maryland is creating some new opportunities: stakes races restricted to horses bred or sired in Maryland and Virginia. The first two of those at Colonial happen on opening Saturday; the $125,000 Miss Disco, for three-year-old fillies, is the fifth race; and $125,000 Star de Naskra, for three-year-olds, is the ninth on a 10-race card.

“I really think this is going to be the best meet yet,” said Kaitlin Free, who has been Colonial’s on-air analyst the last three years. “The purses keep going up, lots and lots of new faces on the backside. So a lot to look forward to. I’m very, very excited.”