Saturday’s International Gold Cup at Great Meadow will include both steeplechase and flat racing and could be a blueprint for racing’s Virginia future.
The Virginia Racing Commission convened on a gray October day in Richmond, which was only foreshadowing what was to come next.
At today’s Virginia Racing Commission meeting, Colonial Downs surrendered its racetrack operators license, possibly ending the Jeff Jacobs era in Virginia racing.
Horses raised in Virginia are thriving everywhere but at home. Tomorrow’s Racing Commission meeting might, or might not, resolve the long impasse over days.
Colonial Downs says it’s fixing Virginia racing by creating, then negotiating with a new “horsemen’s group.” Nick Hahn says that sounds more like gelding.
Colonial Downs, Inc., says it’ll close its track and OTBs unless the Virginia Racing Commission approves its proposed schedule – and contract with a new horsemen’s group.
Whether it will end with a signed contract, or the relinquishing of the Colonial Downs’s license, Virginia’s dates dispute is moving towards an end game.
The half-dozen Virginia-bred stakes run at Laurel Park Saturday could point the way to future regional cooperation, even a circuit, said participants.
In our weekly feature, Maryland Jockey Club analyst Gabby Gaudet shares her late Pick 4 ticket, and we dig into the day’s featured Bert Allen Stakes.
Tomorrow’s state-bred racing at Laurel Park — instead of Colonial Downs — gives Virginia breeders something they’re used to: an out-of-state chance to shine.