WVRC

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 The awarding of race dates in West Virginia is annually an outdated, several step process.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...

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...

Mountaineer Park's premier stakes, the GIII West Virginia Derby, will shift to the first Sunday in August with a later post time this year in an effort to make the $500,000, nine-furlong race for 3-year-olds better stand out against national simulcast competition. The West Virginia Derby, plus the supporting GIII $200,000 West Virginia Governor's S. at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds and up, will now be carded Sunday, Aug. 6, after the track received unanimous permission for that change at Tuesday's West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC)  meeting. The purses for...

In an effort to play catch-up with other racing jurisdictions in the mid-Atlantic region that have already adopted or are in the process of implementing model rules regarding medication abuse and stepped-up penalty scales, the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) voted to send four proposals backed by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) out for a 30-day public commentary period during the board's May 18 meeting. But when the WVRC meets again to vote on whether to adopt those rules at a yet-to-be-scheduled date, commission chairman Ken Lowe, Jr....