Once a nearly year-round meet, Mountaineer Park in Chester, W.Va., has seen its dates trimmed back in recent seasons, and that trend continues as the track enters its 2018 meet. In its 67th year of operation, Mountaineer will host a 123-day meet, nearly half the 232 days it hosted a decade ago. Struggles maintaining overnight purses forced the track to cut its planned 210-day meet to 160 days in 2015, and Mountaineer’s horsemen requested another reduction last season from 160 days to 131. This year’s meet will span May 1 through Nov. 28, primarily racing Sundays through Wednesdays with a 7 p.m. Eastern post time. Two exceptions to the schedule will be Kentucky Derby Day on May 5 and the West Virginia Derby card on Aug. 4, which will both be held on Saturdays with a 2 p.m. first post. As usual, the highlight of the meet will be the Aug. 4 card, anchored by the Grade 3, $500,000 West Virginia Derby, a midsummer staple for the 3-year-old male division at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt. The West Virginia Derby card will feature seven stakes races, including the Grade 3, $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. A quintet of $75,000 stakes races round out the slate, ranging from the 4 1/2-furlong Chairman’s Cup Stakes to a pair of turf races at a mile and 70 yards. Tuesday’s opening card starts with a pair of 4 1/2-furlong sprints on the turf course, and the feature is a $25,100 allowance at five furlongs on the main track. Eight of Mountaineer’s top 10 trainers by wins from the 2017 meet are represented with at least one entry on opening night – Eddie Clouston, Jay Bernardini, John Baird, Burton Sipp, John Capellini, J. Edwin Shilling, Alejandro Gomez, and Tommy Short. A ninth, Donald Blankenship, has his first runners of this year’s meet the following night. New faces saddling multiple horses on Mountaineer’s opening night include Kevin Monday, who is based in Michigan and Ohio. On Tuesday, Carl Rafter will send his first Mountaineer runners to post since 2015, having run mostly at Charles Town since. Gerald Brooks and Kimberly Graci, two Mid-Atlantic trainers who have not had a significant presence at Mountaineer in recent years, both have two entered Wednesday. Like the trainer ranks, the leaders of last year’s jockey colony have largely returned for the opening card, including eight of last year’s top 10 by wins: Luis Quinones, Charle Oliveros, Edgar Paucar, Erik Barbaran, Luciano Hernandez, Eddie Jurado, Wilkin Ortiz, and Megan Fadlovich. Apprentice Adrian Flores has a mount on Tuesday’s card, followed by four on Wednesday. Flores debuted earlier this year in Puerto Rico and came to the contiguous United States in April. Charles Town regular Antonio Lopez is scheduled Tuesday to take his first mount at Mountaineer since 2016.