Arapahoe adds Monday racing for 2018 meet

Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colo., has added Monday racing to its calendar for the 39-date meet that opens Saturday. The track features Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing. The meet runs through Aug. 12.

Arapahoe will race every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and also plans to race on the Fridays of June 1, June 29, July 27, and Aug. 10. The cards on Fridays will largely be for trial races, said Bill Powers, plant manager and racing secretary for Arapahoe.

“The big change is the Mondays,” Powers said. “We’re trying to run an all-Thoroughbred card when we can, hoping to drive our handle up a little bit.”

Powers said the hope is that Arapahoe’s signal will get greater exposure on Mondays, when there are fewer tracks racing.

The restructured racing calendar makes for a 12-week meet this year instead of the normal 13. The date count, however, remains the same as in 2017.

In another change, four Quarter Horse stakes have returned after a one-year hiatus. The $90,000 Rocky Mountain Futurity and $55,000 Rocky Mountain Derby will share a card on June 1, and the $100,000 Mile High Futurity and $90,000 Mile High Derby will share a card on July 27.

The races are the richest offerings of the meet.

The $50,000 Gold Rush Futurity for 2-year-olds at six furlongs tops the Thoroughbred stakes program at the track. It is set for Aug. 12 and will share a card with the $30,000 Arapahoe Park Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up. The $30,000 Colorado Derby will be run at 1 1/16 miles on July 15.

Arapahoe’s first stakes of the meet is the $30,000 Inaugural, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds on Sunday. The field of six includes Fortified Effort, a multiple stakes winner who has been racing at Turf Paradise, and A J Samurai, who ran fourth in last year’s Gold Rush Futurity. Another sprint offering for 3-year-olds this meet is the $25,000 Get Happy Mister on June 23.

Powers said Arapahoe has drawn stables from throughout Colorado, as well as Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Purses for the meet are projected to average $85,000 a program, which is the same level as last year, according to Powers.

First post daily is 1 p.m. Mountain.