Rockingham cards turf races

Thoroughbred racing will return to Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire, for one day on Labor Day weekend, when the track has scheduled three turf races on Sunday, Sept. 5.

Rockingham had been the site of Thoroughbred racing until the end of its 2002 meeting, but the track switched to Standardbred cards beginning last year.

Ed Callahan, Rockingham's vice president and general manager, said in a statement Wednesday that the three races in September "may be the beginning of Rockingham adding additional Thoroughbred dates in 2005."

The three Thoroughbred races will be run on the grass course after a Standardbred program of eight or nine races.

Suffolk Downs, which once shared a New England Thoroughbred racing circuit with Rockingham, will be dark on Sept. 5, avoiding a conflict for riders.