Fonner: Snow, cold temperatures in forecast for meet opener
The weather in Grand Island, Neb., on Wednesday afternoon was sunny and an unseasonably warm 70 degrees. By Friday, when Fonner Park launches its 2017 season of live racing, the projected high is 30 degrees with a 60 percent chance of snow.
Weather permitting, Fonner will present the first of 31 programs with a nine-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Central. Live racing continues on a Friday-through-Sunday basis through May 6.
First post time on Fridays shifts to 3 p.m. on March 18. Saturday and Sunday cards start at 1:30 p.m.
The five-furlong oval in central Nebraska, which has chutes to accommodate four-furlong and 6 1/2-furlong races, will offer 13 stakes, highlighted by the Bosselman-Gus Fonner for older horses going 1 1/16 miles on April 29. Last year, when the track was hit by an outbreak of equine herpesvirus, a barn with 200 horses was under quarantine for the last three weeks of the meet and the Bosselman-Fonner saw its purse slashed from $75,000 to $30,000.
The stakes fixture has been restored to $75,000 status for this season. Most of the other stakes are worth $25,000 apiece.
The first stakes is Saturday’s 50th running of the Grasmick, a four-furlong sprint worth $10,000.
About 800 horses are on the grounds and Friday’s card attracted 72 horses, including three full fields of 10.
David Anderson, the leading trainer at each of the last two meets, has just one starter on opening day. He will send out the 4-year-old filly Point and Fire in the featured eighth race, a four-furlong allowance for fillies and mares seeking their second lifetime victory. Point and Fire won her maiden by 6 3/4 lengths last spring at Fonner.
