Charles Town

Stepping into the shedrow of Laurel Park's Barn 22 late in the morning on a dark day, all is relatively quiet. Outside of the office, a groom rakes up loose pieces of straw as the horse residing in the first stall peers out inquisitively, all the while his neighbor to the left lies curled up in freshly tossed bedding. Further down, a wheelbarrow sits parked outside of the fifth stall, which is where you'll find trainer Henry Walters as he finishes mucking out. After setting aside the pitchfork and giving...

Both Charles Town Races (165 dates) and Mountaineer Park (125 dates) got approval Dec. 16 from the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) to finalize live racing schedules for 2026. The awarding of race dates in West Virginia is annually an outdated, several step process. A state statute requires Charles Town to apply for 220 programs every year, and Mountaineer is required to apply for 210 dates. But those quotas haven't been reached for quite some time. So what has ended up happening in recent seasons is that after the initial...

Francis DiAmario, the starter at Charles Town Races, got fined $1,000 by that track's stewards for sending away the field in the seventh race on Wednesday with one entrant left back behind the gate. Medallion of Ash (Medallist) was 90-1 in the betting and had yet to step into the outermost stall of a two-turn 6 1/2 -furlong race that started in front of the stands when DiAmario, 65, sprung the latch. Track announcer Paul Espinosa Jr. immediately alerted bettors to the situation at the start of his race call,...

Mountaineer Park on Thursday received unanimous permission from the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) to shift one end-of-meet date on its schedule and add two others, moving closing day of the season from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9. "You'll recall, with the passage of recent legislation, monies were provided back to the purse fund," Joe Moore, the executive director for the WVRC, said during the commission's Oct. 23 monthly meeting. "And with the additional funding, Charles Town had previously requested three additional race dates, [which] the commission approved." Mountaineer's plan...

With a resume of graded stakes-placed experience anchored by a runner-up try in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and a 10-for-10 lifetime record at Laurel Park that included a 17-length blowout in an open-company stakes there last month, Post Time (Frosted) figured to deserve his formidable 1-10 favoritism in the six-horse feature on Saturday's 40th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million program for the offspring of stallions standing in Maryland. But even though the 12-time winner enjoyed a decided advantage on paper in the $150,000 Classic Stakes over 1...

Indy Bay kept the momentum rolling Friday night for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., giving him his second stakes win on the card with a pace-stalking win in the GII Charles Town Oaks. The daughter of Take Charge Indy kicked off her career with a pair of Oaklawn starts for trainer Thomas Vance before selling privately and shipping south to join Saffie Joseph's Gulfstream string in early spring. A winner in her first Florida try stepping up to seven furlongs March 1, she made the return trip to Arkansas and added...

Saffie Joseph Jr. is easy to pick out. It's got to be the hair. He talks about the long locks he has on his head and what it would take for him to cut it off. He talks about Skippylongstocking going for his third straight win in the Charles Town Classic. He compares the weather of Saratoga to Florida. And, it might surprise you what actor he picks to play himself if ever there was a movie made about his life. He sat down with the TDN's Tim Wilkin to...

Joining New Jersey and Colorado, West Virginia has become the third state to legalize fixed odds wagering on horse racing. The legislation was fully completed Saturday and the state's racetracks, sports book and gambling apps can begin accepting the bets whenever they are ready to go. The Legislature passed the bill by a 55-43 count. "I am the general counsel and lobbyist for the Charles Town HBPA, and so that was the impetus for me trying to get this started," said lobbyist Philip Reale. "Fixed odds has been popular in...

The nation's racetracks appear primed for compliance with the first set of uniform receiving barn cleanliness, maintenance and security regulations. Just how stringent these rules will be remains up in the air. Back in August, the TDN took a dive into the issues that stakeholders frequently raise about the nation's fleet of receiving barns. This included the potential for unclean stalls, or receiving barns in poor overall physical condition, to cause environmental contamination through left behind trace drug residues. Last month, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) issued for...

Kenneth F. Lowe, Jr., the colorful and sometimes controversial chairman of the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC), died suddenly earlier this week. His passing was first reported Sept. 4 in a remembrance editorial in the Journal-News of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Lowe was in his mid-70s, and no cause of death had been announced prior to publication of this story. On Thursday, a staffer at the WVRC confirmed Lowe's passing to TDN, but declined to speak on the record about the circumstances of the chairman's death or about his recent health,...

Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) gave trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. a sweep of Friday's graded events at Charles Town, leading every step of the way to successfully defend his title in the $1-million GII Charles Town Classic. Sent off the 11-10 chalk to become the fourth two-time winner and third back-to-back winner of West Virginia's richest horse race, the likeable bay was kicked straight into the lead by Jose Ortiz and dictated terms in advance of Frosted Departure (Frosted)--who was not ridden forward as is his custom--through fractions of :24.15 and :47.88. Ortiz...

Friday is shaping up to be quite a stakes-laden slate as the rescheduled King's Plate card from last weekend at Woodbine joins the GI Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga and a pair of pricey Grade IIs from Charles Town. TDN's full coverage of the races that were forced to move because of a deluge in Toronto can be found in Patrycja Szpyra's preview, plus a piece on the King's Plate by Bill Finley. As for the Spa feature, it boasts a set of intriguing match-ups between four of the runners...