Charles Town’s biggest day in its 2022 schedule follows up on a format that started in 2020 and has subsequently produced two of the three largest handles in Charles Town’s history, as Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races presents both of its graded stakes – the $1,000,000 Charles Town Classic (G2) and $500,000 Charles Town Oaks (G3) – on the same Friday, August 26 card.  The Charles Town Classic and Charles Town Oaks will headline the action on a 13-race program that gets underway with a special first post of 5:00 P.M.

Run for $1,000,000 in available purse money in its first eleven editions, the Classic will jump back into seven-figure territory for the first time since local star Runnin’toluvya took the 2019 edition with the pandemic impacting available purses in both 2020 and 2021.  The Oaks also received a purse increase to $500,000, matching where it stood in 2014, the first year it was run as a graded race. The three other unrestricted stakes on the Classic night undercard – the Russell Road, Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon and Robert Hilton Memorial – also received hikes to $250,000. 

“We’re incredibly pleased with the business results of the last two Charles Town Classic programs and look forward to ramping up the card this August,” said Charlie McIntosh, Charles Town’s Director of Racing.  “The lineup of racing will be very strong and with it projecting as the most lucrative card in our history, we see no reason this shouldn’t also be the most anticipated.”

Charles Town’s, full stakes schedule including its restricted stakes and the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics XXXVI card – expected to be held on October 8 – will be announced at a later date.