EAST BOSTON, Mass. – It was like a family reunion at Suffolk Downs on Thursday as horsemen began shipping horses into the 80-year-old racetrack in preparation for the first of three Thoroughbred Racing Festival days on Saturday. The other festival days are Oct. 3 and Oct. 31. Last October, the mood was decidedly different when the stable area closed, apparently for good, after the track’s owners announced that the 2014 meet would be the last as a consequence of gaming partner Mohegan Sun’s failure to secure the single Boston-area casino license. Trainers were then forced to disperse their stock to other East Coast tracks. But the New England chapter of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and Suffolk’s management struck a deal in the spring for the three days of live racing in 2015, with an average daily purse distribution of about $500,000 to be supplied by Massachusetts’s new Race Horse Development Fund. “It’s great to be home and see a lot of faces I haven’t seen in over a year now,” said Jay Bernardini, Suffolk’s leading trainer in 2014, who is now based in Maryland. “With a lot of apprehension, we ran the last race last year and didn’t know if we would be back again. It is a little bit bittersweet that it is only one day, but it is still going to be great to be back in a place that will always be home.” Lou Raffetto, the consultant to the NEHBPA, and racing secretary Tom Creel recruited prominent out-of-state horsemen along with the former locals to fill Saturday’s 13-race card, which includes a steeplechase race over the jumps and a 1 1/2-mile flat turf race for the heavyweights. There were 111 horses entered, and purses for the first day total $507,500. To give a boost to the state’s breeding industry, Massachusetts-breds are being showcased in three restricted stakes races offering purses of $50,000 each – the African Prince, Rise Jim, and Isadorable stakes. Tammi Piermarini, who relocated her family to Pennsylvania and has established herself in the Parx jockey colony, was named to ride the probable favorite in each race. The third-leading female rider of all time in terms of wins, Piermarini will be aboard Miss Wilby, who has four wins against open company, in the African Prince for trainer Marcus Vitali; former New England-bred champion and defending titlist Victor Laszlo in the Rise Jim; and Navy Nurse in the Isadorable, which the mare won in 2013. Victor Laszlo and Navy Nurse are Patricia Moseley homebreds. On each of the three race days, purses will be paid to fifth place, and there will be a “runner’s reward” of $800 for each horse who finishes sixth or worse. There is also a $200 trainer’s bonus to be paid for each horse, and shipping from Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park, Finger Lakes, Parx, Monmouth Park, Delaware Park, and Laurel Park is being subsidized. The main track was scheduled to be open for training on Friday from 6 to 10 a.m., and free meals and housing are being provided to backstretch workers. The backside must be vacated on Sunday. In addition to live racing, Suffolk Downs is offering promotions that include more than a dozen food trucks, a craft beer festival, live music, and a host of free children’s activities and pony rides. First post is 12:30 p.m. Eastern, and gates open at 11 a.m. Admission, box seating, and parking are free. On Thursday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission approved a request from Suffolk Downs to lower the parimutuel takeout from 19 percent to 15 percenty on win, place and show wagers, and from 26 percent to 15 percent on multiple bet wagers. But the change will not be implemented until the next racing date on Oct. 3.