The 2023 racing dates at Colonial Downs will hold steady at the same 27-program level that the turf-focused track ran this year, but the full first season under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), will see a shift to Thursday-through-Saturday racing instead of the Virginia track's traditional Monday-through-Wednesday slot.
The number of racing dates had been a concern for mid-Atlantic horsemen who were leery about CDI bloating the racing schedule beyond what the region's horse population might be able to sustain.
Those concerns were raised back in July, when Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, said during a quarterly earnings conference call that it would be CDI's intent to expand the current boutique-styled summer race meet from 27 to 50 dates, for the purpose of maximizing the number of historical horse racing machines (HRMs) that it can operate throughout Virginia. A state law requires CDI to run one race date for every 100 HRMs.
“Over the next two to four years we expect to grow to up to 50 race dates as we reach 5,000 HRMs,” Carstanjen said in that July 28 call.
At that time, Frank Petramalo Jr., the executive director of the Virginia Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, told TDN that given the current harmony among racing schedules in the mid-Atlantic, “it's important to continue a cooperative relationship between Virginia and Maryland and Delaware [and] certainly Pennsylvania….. We have a lot of racing [in the region] and a diminishing number of horses. We think the way to success is to try to rationalize racing programs.”
The July 13-Sept. 9 schedule for 2023 was approved unanimously Dec. 14 by the Virginia Racing Commission.
The highlight of the meet, the GII Virginia Derby, will be run on closing day.
The switch to Thursday-Saturday racing “will allow for more Virginians to attend and enjoy live racing,” Jack Sours, the vice president for CDI's gaming operations, said in a press release.
But nationally, Colonial's switch to different dates and a 1:30 p.m. Eastern first post will put it in direct competition with Saratoga Race Course, the nation's dominant summer simulcast signal, and up against another CDI-owned track, Ellis Park, on Saturdays and Sundays.
After being closed for six years, Colonial reopened under new management in 2019, ushering in the HRM-fueled purse era in Virginia and carving out a reputation as an independent “comeback” track whose niche was turf racing.
In February 2022, CDI commenced a deal to buy Colonial and its HRM network in a sale announced as $2.485 billion.
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