Prairie Meadows opens mixed meeting
Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, will open its 2021 meet on Friday with eight twilight races that have drawn 56 horses, with the hope that its race cards will begin attracting more horses after spring-time circuits wrap up their meets to the south.
The county-owned racetrack and casino is scheduled to run 84 live racing dates this year, on a Friday-through-Monday schedule. The first 26 cards will have races for Thoroughbreds only, but the last 58 cards will have seven races for Thoroughbreds and three races for Quarter Horses each day, in the second attempt at intermingling the breeds.
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“This was something we did for the first time last year,” said Derron Heldt, the track’s vice president of racing. “But COVID kind of messed that up, so we’re hoping to have a go at it this year. It’s still fairly new to us.”
The coronavirus led to a delayed opening at the track last year, reducing the meet to 67 days. Restrictions across the United States on shipping horses and jockey travel complicated racing for all tracks, including Prairie Meadows.
Right now, the backside has 525 Thoroughbreds, but Heldt said that he hopes to fill the remainder of Prairie’s 1,300-plus stalls after Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and Fonner Park in Nebraska close in May. About two-thirds of the stalls will be allocated to Thoroughbreds, with the remainder reserved for Quarter Horses. The mixed meet begins June 18.
Racing will be run on a twilight schedule throughout the meet, with first post on Fridays and Saturdays at 6 p.m. Central. First post on Sundays and Mondays will be 4 p.m.
The track will welcome a new racecaller this year in Bobby Neuman, though Neuman will not start his duties until May 2. Ken Miller, the previous racecaller, will fill in the first two days as Neuman fulfills a commitment to Horse Racing Radio Network for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.
The racing highlights of the season will be the July 2-3 cards, called the Festival of Racing. The July 2 card will feature the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap, worth $300,000; the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks, with a purse of $250,000; and the $250,000 Iowa Derby. The July 3 card will feature three $100,000 stakes.
The opening Saturday card will have only six races, with a special first post of 6:30. The Kentucky Derby is scheduled to be run approximately a half-hour earlier.