Mahoning Valley adds two stakes in November

Mahoning Valley Race Course in Youngstown, Ohio, has added two stakes races to its fall schedule, according to Penn National Gaming Inc., the track’s parent company, and both will be part of a series of races linked to the parent’s racetracks.

The two stakes will be held Nov. 23 at Mahoning Valley, which held its first race meet late last year. The $200,000 Steel Valley Sprint will be for 3-year-olds at six furlongs and will be joined by the $75,000 Hollywood Gaming Mahoning Distaff, for fillies and mares ages 3 and up, also at six furlongs.

The races, which are being held on a Monday approximately three weeks after this year’s Breeders’ Cup, are being billed as part of the Penn Gaming Racing Challenge, which links races at five tracks owned or co-owned by Penn National Gaming Inc. The series has 23 races with total purses of $5.35 million. Penn officials said in a release that the Monday scheduling seeks to capitalize on the simulcast market.

Mahoning Valley holds the license of the former Beulah Park in Grove City, Ohio, outside Columbus. Penn closed Beulah in 2014 and relocated the track’s license to Youngstown to take advantage of a less competitive market for casino gambling.