Fair Grounds will begin meet Nov. 18

Fair Grounds will open its 2022-23 racing season on Friday, Nov. 18, eschewing the traditional Thanksgiving opener the historic track had returned to in the 2019-20 season.

Fair Grounds also released a stakes schedule for the 80-day racing season, when the track will offer 65 stakes worth about $8.5 million. Those numbers are up from 59 stakes worth $7,795,000 during the 2021 season. The six new stakes are all $75,000 races restricted to Louisiana-breds. Churchill Downs Inc., Fair Grounds’ parent company, did boost the minimum purse for open stakes to $100,000 from $75,000 with the exception of two stakes, the Black Gold and the Allen "Black Cat" Lacombe.

Most of the open stakes will be run on four cards: Road to the Derby Kickoff Day on Dec. 26; Road to the Derby Day on Jan. 21; Louisiana Derby Preview Day on Feb. 18; and Louisiana Derby Day on March 25.

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The dirt-route series for 3-year-olds includes a race on all four cards, culminating with the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 25. Epicenter, the leading 3-year-old male of 2022, ran in all four races last season, starting with the Gun Runner in late December.

Fair Grounds in 2008 ended its longstanding Thanksgiving opening day in favor of a Nov. 14 start and for the next decade or so mainly began its meet a week or so before Thanksgiving.