Midwest tracks cancel racing over air quality

Tracks throughout the upper Midwest cancelled their live racing programs for Wednesday after plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires once again descended across the U.S. border for the second time in three weeks.

Two Ohio tracks, Belterra in Cincinnati and Thistledown outside of Cleveland, canceled their cards, as well as Hawthorne Racecourse in Chicago, Horseshoe Indianapolis in Indiana, Presque Isle Downs in northwestern Pennsylvania, and Mountaineer in West Virginia.

Belterra, Thistledown, and Hawthorne all had eight-race cards on the schedule filled with overnight races, but Horseshoe Indianapolis had a 10-race card with two $100,000 stakes restricted to Indiana-breds.

In a statement, Horseshoe Indianapolis said that they would be adding “several of the races” from the Wednesday card to its July 3 card. That holiday card, which will now include 10 Thoroughbred races and four Quarter Horse trials, will start at 1:20 p.m and conclude by 8 p.m., the track said.

The statement said that officials in Indiana have predicted that the local air-quality issues would worsen throughout the afternoon. The track said the decision to cancel was made “mutually with our horsemen.”

Eric Halstrom, the general manager at Horseshoe Indianapolis, posted a picture on social media showing that smoke was obscuring the tree line on the property adjacent to the track’s backstretch.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires first descended into the U.S. three weeks ago, leading some racing commissions and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to issue guidelines on holding live-racing events under air-quality warnings. The plumes forced cancellations at a number of U.S. tracks on the eastern seaboard, including Belmont Park, which had to cancel the Thursday card prior to the Belmont Stakes.

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