Fair Grounds will offer 53 stakes worth $6.4 million

Fair Grounds on Thursday officially announced racing dates and the stakes schedule for its 2015- 2016 season, which begins Nov. 19 and ends March 27 and encompasses 81 racing dates.

As in 2014, the season begins the week before the traditional Thanksgiving opener, but the Thanksgiving Day card includes the first of 53 stakes at the meet, the Thanksgiving Handicap. Those 53 stakes, 10 of which are graded, are six more stakes than Fair Grounds offered last season, and stakes purses are up from $5,750,000 in 2014 -2015 to $6,437,000 this season.

Fueling that increase is the Louisiana Derby, which is back to being a $1 million race after offering a $750,000 purse in 2015. Louisiana Derby Day, which also includes the $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks, the $400,000 New Orleans Handicap, and the $300,000 Mervin Muniz, is March 26, 2015.

Other important dates are Feb. 20, which is Derby Preview Day, highlighted by the Risen Star Stakes; Road to the Derby Kickoff Day on Jan. 16; and Louisiana Champions Day on Dec. 12.

Gone from last year’s stakes schedule is the $30,000 Kudzu for Alabama-breds, but there are seven other new or returning stakes on the schedule, all of the $50,000 or $60,000 variety, and mainly clustered earlier in the meet.

The increase in stakes purses comes after all sources average daily handle showed a season-over-season 10-percent increase last meet. Driving that positive change was a revamped turf course that performed far better than during previous meets, and generally improved relations between the track and horsemen after Fair Grounds, at the insistence of state legislators following the 2013- 2014 meet, made improvements in several areas.

The standard race week for the 2015 -2015 meet, with several exceptions, is four days spanning Thursday through Sunday. Posts times generally are 1:25 p.m. Central.