Charles Town Classic retains $1 million purse for 2019 running

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has set its complete 2019 live racing calendar and schedule of unrestricted stakes following approval by the West Virginia Racing Commission Thursday morning.  The schedule calls for 164 days live racing over the course of 2019 beginning on Friday, January 4, and continuing through December 21.

Charles Town will conduct live racing from Wednesday through Saturday in January, February, March and April and Thursday through Saturday the remainder of the year. Post time for the first race will be the track’s standard 7 p.m. ET start time with the exception of April 20 when the card will get underway at 12:30 p.m. and September 21 when it kicks off at 5 p.m.

The marquee race of the track’s season – the $1 million Charles Town Classic (G2) – takes center stage on April 20 as it headlines a quartet of unrestricted stakes on Charles Town’s biggest day. The Charles Town Classic, now in its eleventh running, will be supported by the $100,000 Dance to Bristol, $100,000 Robert Hilton Memorial and $75,000 Russell Road Stakes, the latter two of which received purse increases for 2019.

The second of Charles Town’s graded stakes, the $300,000 Charles Town Oaks (G3), will take place on the September 21 Race for the Ribbon card.  The Charles Town Oaks is joined by the $75,000 Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon Stakes and a new race – the $100,000 Dickie Moore Stakes, named for the track’s longtime General Manager of Racing and former Racing Secretary who will be retiring at year’s end following 54 years at the property.

“We felt that the new two-year-old filly race should fit in a good spot on the calendar within the region,” said Erich Zimny, Charles Town’s Vice President of Racing and Sports Operations. “And to name it after Dickie, who has contributed to and meant so much to not only the track but this community for such a long time, is both fitting and appropriate.”

West Virginia Breeders’ Classics XXXIII will be held on Saturday, October 12, and those races, as well as the remainder of West Virginia-bred stakes to be run at Charles Town in 2019 will be released in the coming weeks.