Fair Grounds will open on Thanksgiving
Fair Grounds in New Orleans will have its traditional Thanksgiving start date later this year after the Louisiana Racing Commission approved an amended calendar for the track’s upcoming meet.
The original request was to open Dec. 2, but the commission at a meeting approved an updated request for an 80-date meet starting Nov. 25, according to Charles Gardiner, the commission’s executive director. He said the meet will run through March 27.
Fair Grounds is opening about a week before neighboring Oaklawn Park, which has received Arkansas Racing Commission approval to open Dec. 3 rather than its typical late January. Oaklawn will race through May 8.
Fair Grounds in October will be the site of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a big economic event for New Orleans. With thousands of festival visitors flocking to the music stages set up in the infield, the turf course will not be ready for racing at the start of the meet. Officials are hoping the turf course will be in use in early January, Gardiner said.
Gardiner said a Fair Grounds official told commissioners of plans to conduct a 2-year-old race that would carry points for the Kentucky Derby.
Also at the meeting, representatives of the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association discussed their desire to require hair testing for drugs for the bigger Quarter Horse races and require finalists for those races to remain on the grounds between the trials and finals, Gardiner said. The commission at its meeting took initial steps to ban albuterol use for Quarter Horses.