Suffolk Downs makes its final stand this weekend; Moseley Stakes tops Saturday card
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Suffolk Downs in East Boston will host its final two days of live racing this weekend, with the hopes of Massachusetts horsemen resting on a plan to refurbish the Great Barrington Fairgrounds in order to continue a long tradition of live racing in the state.
Suffolk, which has held live race meets for 84 years, will sell commemorative T-shirts this weekend as it once again plays host to two days of live races that will offer $1 million in total purses and the last memories of Thoroughbreds running down its stretch. The 161-acre property will soon be razed and replaced in the future by what is likely to be a mix of offices and high-end residential and retail spaces.
Suffolk Downs has held three or four of these festival-type weekends of live races each year for the past three years after deciding in 2015 to market the property for development when it was passed over for a casino license by state regulators. The property was bought by a development firm in 2017 for $155 million, and that firm is seeking approval for its plans.
Suffolk has been using state-mandated subsidies from the state’s casinos to fund purses during its weekend race cards, and it’s that same fund that the track’s owners and the state’s horsemen hope to tap to resurrect racing at Great Barrington, which hasn’t held live racing for 20 years. Last year, Suffolk’s owners signed a long-term lease with the facility’s owners.
Suffolk officials believe that if the legislature is amenable to plans to use a portion of the casino subsidies to partially fund improvements at Great Barrington and cover some operating expenses, they could start racing there in the fall of 2020. A bill allowing the track to do just that, along with continuing to offer full-card simulcasting year-round at a facility in the Boston area, has been introduced to the state legislature and will get a hearing on Monday.
“The owners are prepared to write a big check to get those renovations going, but it’s certainly easier to make that work if we have that support” from the casino fund, said Chip Tuttle, the chief operating officer of Suffolk.
Tuttle said that while the barns at Great Barrington remain in good shape, the track would need to be expanded from its current diameter of four furlongs to at least five furlongs. The grandstand would also need significant renovations, along with the grounds. Engineers and renovation consultants have been visiting the Great Barrington property over the last few months to determine all that would need to be done prior to live racing making a return, Tuttle said.
“We’re circling in on what will be the total costs to get it into racing shape,” Tuttle said.
As for the final two cards, the centerpiece is Saturday’s $100,000 James B. Moseley Stakes, a five-furlong grass race that drew a field of seven, with Factorofwon, trained by Christophe Clement, the 2-1 favorite on the morning line. Four stakes races for Massachusetts-bred horses, each worth $50,000, will be held throughout the final weekend as well.