Thistledown cancels Wednesday, Thursday cards; track surface evaluated

Thistledown Racetrack outside Cleveland, Ohio, will be closed for racing on Wednesday and Thursday while its main track is evaluated by a racing-surface diagnostics company, according to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

A spokesperson said on Tuesday night that HISA and Thistledown officials had agreed to cancel the two live racing dates to allow the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory to “review current track measurements and confirm the track surface is consistent and there are no abnormalities or areas of concern.”

The Wednesday and Thursday cards would be the seventh and eighth consecutive cards to be wholly or in part canceled at Thistledown in the past two weeks.

Last week, horsemen and riders began complaining on Monday that rocks were emerging in the track’s dirt surface, leading to the cancellation of all four live racing days last week. On Monday, Thistledown ran one race but canceled the rest of the card after a horse had a fatal breakdown.

The HISA spokesperson said that horses will be allowed to “jog or gallop” horses on the main track from Wednesday to Friday, but the horses will not be allowed to work. Full training “is expected to resume” on Saturday, the spokesperson said, with an eye toward resuming live racing on Monday.

Thistledown races on a Monday-Thursday schedule.

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