Charles Town resurfacing placed on hold by weather
Photo by The Racing Biz.
by Tom Lamarra, courtesy of The Blood-Horse.
More than three inches of rain since April 27 has stalled resurfacing of the racetrack at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, which will decide May 10 whether it can offer the program regularly scheduled for the following night.
Charles Town took a longer break than usual after its April 23 Charles Town Classic (gr. II) program for track resurfacing and was scheduled to race May 6-7. Those two cards were canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances,” including discovery of rocks in the surface.
The West Virginia Racing Commission scheduled a special meeting for May 11 to discuss the situation. The commission in a notice said it will address “the unexpected cancellation of racing at Charles Town due to unsafe track surface conditions caused by the placement of materials on the track containing rocks or stones.”
Charles Town vice president of racing operations Erich Zimny May 9 said the area has received 3.26 inches of rain 14 of the last 15 days, and more could be on the way.
“We basically need two or three days of no rain, or just trace precipitation, to get the track dry enough to do the maintenance work that needs to be done, and it’s just not happening,” Zimny said. “Our track maintenance team tried to get out there (Monday) and go through the surface, which was still pretty heavy according to them, but they had to stop and float it because there’s more rain coming.
“At this point, we’ll make a decision on Wednesday racing tomorrow, but the weather forecast looks ominous again.”
In light of the May 6-7 cancellations, Charles Town said it would add a ninth and 10th race to the May 11 program and a ninth race for the subsequent 14 racing days. The track has been offering eight-race cards.
Story courtesy of The Blood-Horse. In order to provide our readers more complete coverage of the Thoroughbred industry, The Racing Biz and The Blood-Horse have crafted a content-sharing agreement allowing each the ability to post stories originally published by the other.
