With Covid-19 keeping big-name jockeys home, riders based at Charles Town get a big and rare opportunity to have live mounts in graded races this evening.
Trainer Jeff Runco, who won the first two runnings of the Charles Town Classic, has three live runners in stakes on this year’s Classic undercard.
Three graded winners, including Grade 1 winner Wicked Whisper and Grade 2 winner Tonalist’s Shape, will clash in Friday’s Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks.
Necessity being the mother of invention, Charles Town Races will for the first time hold its two graded races, the Classic and Oaks, on the same card.
Leslie Condon, a trainer at Charles Town Races and CTHBPA board member, passed away unexpectedly Thursday at age 49.
The Charles Town Classic and Charles Town Oaks, the two graded races on the track’s calendar, drew robust nominations for their 2020 renewals August 28.
In its Thursday card, Charles Town will have a carryover of more than $35,000 in the Pick 5, which kicks off in race four.
Jockey Darius Thorpe has seized an opportunity to raise his own profile, piloting the speedy Dr. Feelgood to 11 wins in 13 starts at Charles Town.
Natural Attraction scored at first asking to be the first winner for new sire Golden Years as Charles Town hosted its first two baby races of 2020.
The Charles Town Classic and Oaks will share a date this year – August 28 – and both will go for smaller purses in 2020, the former’s reduced to $600,000.