Opening-day festivities put emphasis on solar eclipse

Opening day will be a dark day at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Monday.

Horseshoe Indianapolis, which is located in Shelbyville, Ind., scheduled its opening day on a Monday this year because the track lies directly in the path of Monday’s total solar eclipse, an event that will not reoccur in North America until 2044. And they’re making the most of it.

The track has scheduled a nearly two-hour pause during its race card in order to allow fans to bask in the darkness, from the finish of the race scheduled for 2:22 p.m. Eastern until the start of the seventh race at 4:15. The start of “totality” – when the moon will completely cover the disk of the sun in the local area – will be 3:06.

“What a great way to kick off our opener,” said Eric Halstrom, the track’s vice president and general manager of racing. “We felt tying our season opener to the total solar eclipse would be a unique way to showcase our racing program while providing a fun afternoon of activities during such a monumental day for central Indiana.”

The track is planning a number of giveaways for the opener, including viewing glasses. An Indianapolis-area group, The Endless Summer Band, will provide live entertainment before and after the totality break.

Traffic is expected to be heavy on both sides of the line of totality, both before and after the eclipse. The first race of the eight-race card is scheduled for noon local time, with six races preceding the totality break and two races after it. Gates will open at 11 a.m.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

The lead-up to totality will feature two $50,000 handicaps restricted to Indiana-breds created especially for the event, the Total Eclipse of the Heart and the Dark Side of the Moon. Both 5 1/2-furlong races drew overflow fields, with starters limited to 12 horses.

In the Total Eclipse of the Heart, Carimba, who won 3 of 5 races last year, will start from post 12 as the morning-line 2-1 favorite. The 6-year-old mare will be ridden by Marcelino Pedroza Jr., the three-time leading rider at Horseshoe.

In the Dark Side of the Moon, the morning-line 3-1 favorite is Classic Max, a 5-year-old who is undefeated in four starts at Horseshoe. Like Carimba, he will be parked outside in the sprint race, breaking from the 11 post under German Terraza.

Last year, Horseshoe Indianapolis posted impressive growth in its handle figures, largely by carding more races on its turf course and getting its racing office to focus on field size. The track also ran mostly on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule to capitalize on the relative lack of competition in the simulcast market early in the week, while adding Saturdays into the mix during the summer.

The track will continue along those same lines during the 123-day meet this year, with first post at 2:10 p.m. every day. The track also plans to run six all-Quarter Horse cards during the meet, with most being held on Saturdays with a 10:45 a.m. first post.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.