Charles Town Picks
Charles Town is a racetrack and casino center which is situated in Charles Town, West Virginia. It is around 60 miles from Baltimore and roughly 10 miles from the historical Harpers Ferry.
It is currently owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties, and the daily operations are supervised by the Penn National Gaming. They acquired the facility back in 1997.
Charles Town is home to among the smallest racetracks in the US, with a six-furlong oval track typically leading to over the four-and-a-half and five furlongs. It is referred to as conventional dirt, and there are presently no plans to build a turf course.
The main track has a width of 60 feet and has a four-and-a-half furlong chute, which permits path races to be held at CharlesTown.
The track has a cutting edge gambling establishment, which was the very first to be developed in West Virginia. Sports wagering has actually been readily available at this venue because August 2018.
There is likewise a 153-room hotel on-site. The track also possesses a grass enclosed grandstand and clubhouse, with the previous being able to seat approximately 3,500 spectators.
Racing occurs all-year-round at Charles Town with live race-days typically taking location Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The track takes a time-out around the holiday before recommencing in mid-January. It was the first East Coast track to hold live racing during the cold weather.
Charles Town only hosts Thoroughbred racing at the track. There are currently no plans to introduce Quarter Horse contests.
The track holds a number of important stakes races throughout the season, with the West Virginia Breeders Classic being the standout contest. This occasion pays over $500,000 to the winning connections, while the total purse for the day has actually recently increased above the million-dollar mark.
Charles Town Racetrack History
Charles Town opened in 1933 and became the first pari-mutuel wagering track in West Virginia. The first live race-day was staged on December 2 and was organized by Albert Boyle of the Shenandoah Valley Jockey Club.
The owners invested $160,000 in order to get the venue as much as scratch and to guarantee that the West Virginia location was fit to stage winter season racing. Despite a number of naysayers recommending that Charles Town would struggle to get visitors through the door, the track saw numbers increase over the first decade regardless of the perilously cold conditions.
Hall of popularity jockey Bill Hartack was a routine at the track during the early days, and he set a variety of track records - a lot of which still stand today. He once rode 24 winners during Charles Town's 24-day winter season satisfy.
John F. Kennedy and his wife visited the track in 1960 as part of their governmental campaign.
In 1969, Barbara Jo Ruben became the very first female jockey to win a pari-mutuel race in the US, with the 19-year-old guidingCohesion home by half-a-length. She went on to have an extraordinary career and was invited back to the track in 2019 to mark the anniversary of the event.
The track closed for 2 weeks in 1979 with all horsemen asked to leave the premises, although racing quickly recommenced, with Sunday being contributed to the calendar quickly after the re-opening.
The very first running of the West Virginia Breeders' Classic was held at the track and was arranged by NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff.The inaugural prize purse included $100,000 and was won by local raider Onion Juice.
The track was purchased by Penn National Gaming in 1997, and they conducted a $175,000,000 upgrade of the facilities.They developed brand-new barns and opened a multi-million dollar simulcast center.
The Charles Town Classic was held for the very first time in 2009, with inaugural race available to older horses running over a mile and one eighth. Researcher won the first 2 renewals of this contest.With a reward handbag of over $1 million, the race continues to draw in a premium field and is one of the wealthiest contests in the US.
Charles Town Track Configuration and Bias
When the track trips fast (which takes place throughout most of the summer season), this typically hinders closers. The fast dirt at Charles Town tends to permit frontrunners to get enough utilize to win wire-to-wire, and this is a key aspect of summer season racing in West Virginia.
Frontrunners often struggle when the rain has actually come down, and the track is riding sloppy.
There has been plenty of racing at CharlesTown in 2019, and the stats suggest that there is a relatively even split when it concerns publish positions. In sprint races, the inside positions have the edge, with stalls one and 2 producing 15.8 and 15.9 percent of the winners, respectively.
Stalls 3 and 7 were also fairly productive, with 14.4 and 14.6 percent of horses beginning here entering the winner's enclosure, respectively.
Stall 9 was the poorest starting position, with simply 11 of the 169 runners being attracted this slot managing to secure triumph (6.5 percent).
In path races, the within stalls likewise produced the greatest number of winners. Stall 2 had 18.6 percent of the winners, while the inside position yielded 17.6 percent of all winning thoroughbreds. Stall 5 revealed a relatively bad return of simply over 10 percent, while only one of the 12 runners starting in stall nine entered the winner's enclosure.
Neither of the 2 horses who started in stall 10 were initially to pass the post.
Charles Town Racing Season
Charles Town is one of a handful of tracks in the US to host year-round racing. The West Virginia venue takes a little break for the holiday season before racing returns at the start of the calendar year. Racing generally occurs Thursday-Sunday although they frequently stage additional cards on Thanksgiving and Labor Day.
There are a number of stakes races held at the track and these command decent-size purses. The standout races consist of the Charles Town Mile and the West Virginia Breeders' Classic.