Fonner to start meet later but maintain 31 days

Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb., will open its meet a week later than usual in 2011 but will maintain its schedule of 31 days as the Nebraska State Racing Commission approved a 92-day live season of state racing at its meeting Thursday in Lincoln.

The Fonner Park season will run Feb. 25 to Kentucky Derby Day, May 7. Lincoln Race Course will again present a 32-day meet running May 13 to July 17 followed by the four-day festival of racing at Omaha’s Horsemen’s Park from July 21-24. Columbus Races will then close out the main racing season with a 23-day season from July 29 to Sept. 11.

Horsemen’s Atokad Downs in South Sioux City was granted a single race day to be determined at a later date, as was the Quarter Horse facility Fairplay Park in Hastings. Both tracks offered a single Nebraska-bred race in 2010 to remain recognized as operating racetracks by the state.