Colonial Downs

MSW Determined Kingdom (Animal Kingdom) captured the title of Virginia-bred Horse of the Year and will be recognized--along with other 2024 award winners--during Virginia Derby Day festivities at Colonial Downs Mar. 15, the track said in a Thursday press release. A series of award presentations will take place between various races from the paddock infield that day and broadcast over the simulcast feed. Determined Kingdom's year was marked with his third straight win in the Punch Line Stakes at Colonial last July. The 6-year-old was also rewarded as the Virginia-bred...

If the countdown on their website is any indication, Colonial Downs can't wait to put on a show come Virginia Derby weekend during an inaugural three-day Spring meet held March 13-15. The New Kent, VA-based track, though known primarily for it's famous Secretariat Turf Course, stands ready to host a new dirt feature on the 'Road to the Kentucky Derby' in the Virginia Derby which will see a field of Triple Crown hopefuls travel 1 1/8 miles with Derby points being awarded to the top five finishers on a 50-25-15-10-5...

With the bidding closed, graded winner Gigante (Not This Time) changed hands for $610,000 to Clark Brewster & L and N racing in a one-horse flash sale, announced Fasig-Tipton Digital via a press release. The 5-year-old was consigned by Lane's End from Fair Grounds with bidding reportedly 'healthy' for the millionaire who claimed the 2023 GII Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs. There were 1,793 unique potential buyers from several continents who looked at Gigante's page more than 10,000 times. "Fasig-Tipton showed us once again how a quality horse is well...

Bidding has officially opened for the flash sale of GSW Gigante (Not This Time) on Fasig-Tipton Digital and will close Friday, Jan. 31 at 12:00 p.m., the auction house announced Monday afternoon. The son of Not This Time claimed the 2023 GII Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs, and continued to be a frequent face in the black-type rankings, including most recently with back-to-back stakes victories to his name in the Dec. 21 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes and Jan. 18 Colonel E. R. Bradley Stakes at Fair Grounds. He has won...

Colonial Downs has opened up ticketing and experience packages for the Mar. 15 Virginia Derby, the new qualifier race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The winning horse will secure a spot in the field for the 151st GI Kentucky Derby, to be held May 3. In additional to a limited number of general admission tickets, additional seating and options have been created, including special trackside seats and boxes, the Trackside Dining Pavilion and Lounge, the Homestretch Derby Party Tent, and an elevated experience in the Colonial Downs Jockey...

Actually, 2024 wasn't that bad of a year for horse racing. There were no major scandals and the rate of horses breaking down fell again. At the tracks under HISA's jurisdiction, it looks like the fatality rate for the year will be about 0.84 horses per 1,000 starters. Considering that same rate in 2009, the first year statistics were kept, was 2.00 per 1,000 shows just how far the sport has come. The GI Kentucky Derby was as thrilling a Triple Crown race as the sport has seen in some...

Colonial Downs will host an expanded 44 days of live racing in 2025, led off by a special three-day Virginia Derby meet from Mar. 13 through Mar. 15, followed by the track's traditional summer meet from July 9 through Sept. 13. The $500,000 Virginia Derby, a points race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, will transition to the dirt and be held Mar. 15, anchoring a new three-day spring meet which will also include the $250,000 Virginia Oaks, a Kentucky Oaks points race. The winning horse in each race...

The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA) has approved the state's Thoroughbred racing calendar for 2025, which includes six days during the week of the 150th running of GI Preakness Stakes before the site is redeveloped, the authority said via a press release on Friday. The first under new leadership and a refitted organizational structure, the MTROA's calendar includes 114 racing days at Laurel Park. Preakness week will constitute the final running at Pimlico prior to a forward-looking rebuild and redevelopment of the Park Heights property, which is intended to...

Integration's well-timed throttle management in the more than capable hands of jockey Flavien Prat worked to perfection as the 4-year-old swooped in late to take the featured GII Red Smith Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday afternoon. After a stellar start to his career in 2023, which saw the $700,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale buy graduate on debut by 6 1/2 lengths over the turf at Colonial Downs, then score in the GIII Virginia Derby and the GII Hill Prince Stakes at the Big A, Integration hit the board in the...

The Maryland Racing Commission has approved a 2025 racing schedule that calls for Laurel and Pimlico to race just 120 days in 2025. The dates were approved at an Oct. 28 racing commission meeting. The story was first reported by the website the racingbiz.com. The number of racing dates has fluctuated in recent years, but the new schedule will mark a new era for Maryland racing. As recently as 2019 there were 174 racing dates. The dates will be divided between the state's two tracks with 114 dates at Laurel,...

In an era when most racetracks in the mid-Atlantic region are paring race dates from their yearly schedules to reflect the declining number of available horses to fill races, Colonial Downs is an outlier. Under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the Virginia track announced in August that it plans to increase its race dates to 44 in 2025 after racing 27 programs this year. On Thursday, by Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, said during a quarterly earnings conference call that he expects the number...

The surest sign that autumn is upon us is that we are already beginning to look ahead to next spring. In the racing world, that means the release of the 2025 Road to the GI Kentucky Derby qualifying schedule, and the list of points-awarding prep races that came out Friday contained a few tweaks. Two stood out--a schedule addition and a rule change. Churchill Downs Inc., the gaming company that controls the Derby and the points system that determines which horses get into the race, locked up a prime piece...