License approval paves way for Colonial Downs to reopen

The Virginia Racing Commission at a meeting on Thursday awarded racing and gambling licenses to the group that purchased Colonial Downs earlier this year, putting the New Kent track on schedule to open for an abbreviated but rich meet of live racing in August of next year.

The ownership group, a partnership of a number of entities mostly based in the Midwest, plans to hold 15 days of live racing next year, on a three-day per week schedule running from Aug. 8 through Sept. 7. Prior to the live meet opening, Colonial plans to begin accepting bets on gambling devices called historical racing machines in the track’s grandstand in April.

The ownership group was expected to be granted the licenses by the racing commission on Thursday, after having already submitted amended licenses applications to the commission earlier this month.

“This is an exciting step for everyone impassioned by the rebirth of live racing in Virginia and for our team delivering on the promise to revitalize horse racing in the commonwealth,” said John Marshall, the general manager of Colonial, in a prepared statement.

Colonial officials have said that they plan to offer $300,000 to $500,000 a day in purses during the 2019 meet, a level that would put it on par with the top tier of tracks in the U.S. Purses will be subsidized by revenues from the gambling devices under an agreement with the state’s horsemen that was also approved at the commission meeting on Thursday.

Colonial Downs last ran a horse race in 2013, and the previous owners of the track surrendered their operating license the next year. The current owners reached a deal to buy the track early this year contingent on the legislature granting the track’s owner monopoly rights to operate the gambling devices at the track and at as many as 10 off-track betting facilities spread across the state. The legislature passed a bill doing that during its 2018 session.

In addition to the machines at Colonial, the track plans to install 700 machines each at three locations in the most populous areas of the state by the end of the year. The racing commission has capped the number of machines that the owners can operate statewide at 3,000.