Laurel adds make-up cards on next five Thursdays
Laurel Park will hold live race cards on five of the next Thursdays and boost all overnight purses by 20 percent through February to make up for a raft of canceled race dates over the past two months, officials for Laurel and the track’s horsemen’s association said on Wednesday.
The decisions were made one day after horsemen met with track management in order to press for additional race days after nearly two weeks of racing were canceled earlier this month because of weather and weather-related renovations to the track’s dirt surface. Laurel will also run “at least” 10 races a day on each of its cards through February.
With the agreement of horsemen, Laurel has also pushed back the date of its Winter Carnival Stakes Day one week, from Jan. 22 to Jan. 29. The card includes four $100,000 stakes and two $75,000 stakes. Training has been curtailed during the recent renovations to the track, setting some horses back.
To accommodate the longer race cards, first post has been moved for all race dates in January to 12:10 p.m. Laurel racing officials told horsemen on Tuesday that they expected to add races to all race cards in the month. The track had been holding nine races per race day prior to the latest cancelations.