This is the tenth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks reviewing the live racing and closed tracks of two states : Minnesota and Virginia.
Minnesota –
Running Aces Harness Park (Casino, Hotel and Racetrack) (ACES)
Running Aces is located in Columbus, Minnesota, six miles north of Hugo, a commuter and semi-rural town eighteen miles north of downtown Saint Paul in Washington County.
Running Aces Harness Park has a cutting edge Las Vegas style card room, new one hundred and sixteen room hotel, live summer harness racing mid-May to mid-September every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings on a five eighths mile agricultural lime and stone dust racetrack, year round Simulcast betting and full service restaurant. Owned by North Metro Harness Initiative, Running Aces opened on 11 April 2008.
The card room offers Blackjack, Pia Gow, 3 & 4 Card Poker, all limits in Texas Hold’em etc with Running Aces featuring daily poker tournaments with various buy-ins. The hotel combines a modern Scandinavian design with large rooms, swimming pool and hot tub. The rooms facing the track allow patrons to view racing from their hotel room. Trout Air Tavern offers cuisine with homemade local tastes and a variety of options. The Trout Air Fishing Experience offers a true Minnesota experience where you catch fish which is cleaned and cooked to order in the tavern.
Running Aces has revived the Race Book section of their floor plan with the state-of-the-art facility offering perfect views of the finishing line plus over twenty new HDTVs and two eighty inch feature screens. The annual Minnesota Championships provides the tracks feature races for two/three year old pacing/trotting fillies and colts together with male/female open pacers events and an open trot.
Offering entertainment throughout the year with monthly comedy and hypnotist shows along with various other events. Banqueting facilities and catering are available for private events. Members of the Aces Rewards Club earn rewards for complimentary food and beverages, merchandise, exclusive events, promotions and tournaments.
Canterbury Park, Shakopee (thoroughbreds) (CBY)
Located in Shakopee, twenty five minutes from downtown Minneapolis and St Paul, Canterbury Park is Minnesota’s only other horse racing track. Minnesota Racetrack Inc was founded by Walter Brooks Fields Jr and other investors including his nephew Brooks Hauser after a legislative amendment allowing pari-mutuel betting on horse racing was approved by Minnesota voters in 1982. Awarded the state’s first racetrack license by the Minnesota Racing Commission, the Shakopee facility originally known as Canterbury Downs opened 26 June 1985 on a one mile oval dirt track and seven furlong turf course.
Striking financial difficulties, the track was sold to Ladbroke Racing Corporation in 1990 being renamed New Canterbury Downs shutting down following a disastrous live racing season in 1992 with enormous falls in attendances. Purchased in late 1993 by Irwin L Jacobs, he quickly on sold to Curtis and Randy Sampson who reopened the tracks doors to simulcasting. Quickly removing itself from debt, Canterbury Downs returned to live racing in January 1995 with an official name change to Canterbury Park.
In 1999 Minnesota State Legislature authorized a card room with poker tables at Canterbury Park. The shutdown of the Minnesota State Government in 2011 forced Canterbury Park to close. In 2011 when the State Government shutdown ended, Canterbury Park reopened on 20 July. In June 2012 a ten year cooperative marketing and purse enhancement agreement between Canterbury Park Holding Corporation and the owner’s and operators of Mystic Lake Casino, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community added $75m to stakes over the agreements life.
Canterbury Park hosts thoroughbred and quarter horse racing, Corgi and Wiener Dog Races and the annual Running of the Bulldogs. Live racing consists of approximately seventy race days from early May to mid-September, normally Thursday through Sunday plus several holiday dates while simulcast betting is offered. The card club offers a two week series of poker tournaments with the Fall Poker Classic held each autumn.
Other live harness racing in Minnesota today takes place at the annual County Fairs – the 2022 programme included racing at :
Cannon Valley Fair, Cannon Falls
The 2022 Fair (1 – 4 July) was the one hundred and seventh with harness racing as a grandstand event that started at 2pm on Monday 4 July, free admission. Racing was for Minnesota bred two and three year olds.
Traverse County Fair, Wheaton
Held since 1907 the Fair is a celebration for those near and far showcasing all that the county has to offer including harness racing on the grandstand track during the two day fair (Fair cancelled in 2020 due to COVID 19). In 2022, the fairs harness racing was held 24 – 25 September.
Closed –
Minnesota State Fairgrounds
The one mile track (Hamline) located in Minneapolis operated from 1885 until 1949 as part of the Minnesota State Fair, also known by its slogan, “The Great Minnesota Get Together“, is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance and second largest by total attendance trailing only the State Fair of Texas which generally runs twice as long as the Minnesota State Fair.
Axtell set a 3yo trotter’s mile record of T2:15½TT at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on 2 July 1889, the first of four occasions he improved this record during the 1889 season – best of T2:12.0TT on 11 October at Terre Haute.
On Saturday 8 September 1906 Dan Patch in front of 35,000 spectators set a world mile pacing record of 1:55.0TT (not recognised officially) after a two mile warmup in intense heat. The American Trotting Association refused to acknowledge the Hamline time due to the dust shield carried by driver Charley Dean’s sulky being subsequently ruled illegal.
One hundred and nine years after setting this record at the Minnesota State Fair, efforts were under way to install a bronze sculpture of Dan Patch on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds near the west end transit hub together with a smaller sculpture outside the Savage Library also featuring Dan Patch’s owner Marion W. Savage and his achievements and contributions to the city.
The Dan Patch Project a non-profit fundraising organisation together with renowned equine sculptor Alexa King were to fund these bronze sculptures. King’s work has featured at horse venues and in private collections USA wide, including her bronze of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro at Churchill Downs. The Minnesota State Fair Foundation, Dan Patch Historical Society and city of Savage approved the Projects plans in July 2015. The project received widespread support from horsemen nationwide beginning it’s fundraising at Running Aces Racetrack during their Dan Patch Celebration Day.
The original goal was to have the State Fair sculpture installed by 1 August 2016 so it could be unveiled in time for 110th anniversary of the record being broken. The larger than life sculpture was to feature Dan Patch with a driver and sulky pacing over a bronze track with water flowing over the track and past the figure creating the illusion of movement in summer months. This goal was not achieved with additional fundraising of $1.2 million for King’s statue still underway.
The bronze statue celebrating the kinship between Dan Patch and his owner, Marion W. Savage, unveiled in June 2018 sits in front of the public library in Savage, Minnesota where Dan Patch is buried.
The above aerial view of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and racetrack in 1937 was taken nine years after the fair was attended by Basil Lee in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s A Night at the Fair. The racetrack is as one described in the story revealing the importance of racetrack events considering its size in relation to the rest of the fair.
Virginia –
Shenandoah Downs
The Shenandoah Downs harness track is located on the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds, Woodstock, halfway between Harrisonburg and Winchester.
In 1886 the Shenandoah County Agricultural Society organized an event for the purposes of showcasing the areas agricultural, horticultural and commercial products. Entertainment included horse racing of every description with lady bareback riders, chariot races and riding on two horses as a team. By 1915 interest had waned although in early 1916 a group of local farmers and businessmen got together to attempt to put on a fair in Shenandoah County. Four hundred and twenty shares of capitol stock would be sold to raise money with there being 338 original stockholders.
Dr. J. H. Smoot acquired twenty five acres of land originally owned by the Shenandoah County Agricultural Society in early 1917 selling the property to the Shenandoah County Fair Association. The inaugural Shenandoah County Fair was held 16-19 October 1917 with harness racing making its debut a year later at the 1918 Fair on the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds track. World War II relief efforts meant no fairs were held in 1943 and 1944.
The fair has acquired more land, now having approximately sixty eight acres and three hundred and sixty five stockholders.
In 2016 an extensive harness track renovation project at the half mile oval was completed at a cost of $700,000 with Greg Coon track consultant during the renovations. Pylons were placed on the track, safety fencing added around the outer perimeter and camera towers positioned. There is no simulcasting, casino or dining room but it does have a grandstand close to the track.
The County Fair harness races have now been held for over one hundred years, 31 August – 3 September 2022 hosted by the Shenandoah County Fair Association. Pari mutual racing at Shenandoah Downs takes place in 2022 between 16 September and 6 November on Fridays and Saturday afternoons until 15 October and Saturday/Sunday afternoons for the final three weeks of the season. This was the seventh season on the upgraded track promoted under the slogan of “Harness the Mountain Magic”. Average daily stakes of around $50k are supported by over $300k in stakes for the Virginia Harness Breeders Championships, feature races each season since 2016 – leading two and three year old Virginian bred pacers and trotters of both sexes compete.
Closed –
Colonial Downs
Colonial Downs located in New Kent County adjacent to Interstate 64, halfway between Richmond and Williamsburg is owned by the Colonial Downs Group. The track opened on 1 September 1997 with more than 13,000 in attendance. The track is one of the largest in size in USA but features a relatively small clubhouse. The land on which the track is built was obtained following a law suit brought by the State of Virginia against an African American/Native American family (Tero Johnson), owners of the majority of the land since 1863. OTB’s (Off Track Betting agencies) were built prior to the opening of the track.
Colonial Downs conducted thoroughbred racing initially until 2013, recommencing again in 2019 with harness racing from 1998 until 2014. The track has a 1¼ mile dirt oval, a 7½ furlong inner turf oval and a 1 1/8 mile outer turf oval. Colonial Downs featured harness racing’s only one turn mile racetrack. Starting from a chute on the back straight of the dirt oval, continuing in a half-mile straight, manoeuvring through a sweeping quarter mile turn before finishing along a quarter mile straight.
The track raced as an autumn harness racing meet e.g. in 2009, thirty six dates from 8 September to 7 November ending on Breeders Cup weekend. Times at Colonial Downs were some of the fastest ever as shown by Enough Talk’s 11 October 2008 $100,000 Patriot Invitational world trotting record victory in T1:49.3, first trotter to break 1:50, fastest trotter of year; likewise Ultimate Falcon’s 1:47.4, 10 May 1998, fastest pacer of year.
The track was managed by the Maryland Jockey Club until 2005 under a complicated agreement with Virginia and Maryland regulators and the Maryland-Virginia Racing Circuit. Colonial Downs did not offer thoroughbred racing after 2013 due to a dispute between track management and horsemen’s groups with harness racing ending in 2014 and all track affiliated betting sites closing in April 2015. A lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking clarity regarding recent amendments to state horse racing laws with the case being dismissed in the District Court on 24 November 2015.
Colonial Downs was denied 2016 racing dates by the Virginia Racing Commission in November 2015. In giving their decision, the commissioners stated that Colonial Downs “displayed callous disregard for the industry” when it surrendered its unlimited racing license in 2014 as the reason for their decision.
Virginia enacted a law in April 2018 to allow historical racing machines (similar to slot machines) at the track and off-track betting parlours in an effort to make it economically viable to reopen the track. This new revenue stream consisted of 2,100 historical horse racing (HHR) terminals placed at Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums at the track. HHR machines allow players to bet on past horse races on slot machine like terminals that have various themed games. Payoffs are determined through pari mutuel pools.
Weeks later the track was purchased by a Chicago based group of investors and gaming executives Revolutionary Racing for over $20 million. Revolutionary Racing and other investors formed Colonial Downs Group, current track owners. Colonial Downs held its first thoroughbred race meeting since its 2013 hiatus on the Secretariat turf course on 8 August 2019.
Colonial Downs hosted its second “new” season of live thoroughbred horse racing under ownership of the Colonial Downs Group in 2020, its third season in 2021 and in 2022 racing took place from 11 July to 7 September, racing every Monday and Wednesdays.
Churchill Downs Incorporated subject to regulatory approvals is poised to acquire nearly all the assets of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, including Colonial Downs in a $2.5 billion transaction expected to finalised by the end of 2022.
Oakridge, Oak Ridge Estate, Charlottesville
Oak Ridge is a working farm where pumpkins, corn and soybean are cropped annually by Fitzgerald Farms with remaining fields used for hay. The estate in Nelson County is located off Route 29 in Arrington, halfway between Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
The original horse track was built in 1909 and restored by owners (since 1989) late John C. Holland Jr and family. An inaugural nine day harness meeting was held in 2001 on the one mile dirt oval track which is accompanied by a grass thoroughbred track and hillside steeplechase course. The track event space is ideal for major events due to its size and spectacular views. Since 2013 Oak Ridge Farm has been home to Virginia’s largest music festival Lockn’.
A second four day pari mutuel harness racing meeting sponsored by the Virginia Equine Alliance (VEA) was held on consecutive weekends in October 2015 (10/11 and 17/18). The Virginia Breeders races (Virginia bred, owned or sired) for two and three year old pacers and trotters of both sexes were held with prep/elimination races the first weekend – 3yo’s Saturday 10th and two year olds Sun 11th. The eight championship races were the highlight of the Virginia Harness Day of Champions on Sunday 18 October 2015.
Next Article : Massachusetts part one
Peter Craig
28 September 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
