Live Thoroughbred racing returns to Turfway Park on Thursday, the start of
the Holiday Meet and the beginning of the Northern Kentucky track’s four-month
winter schedule.
Though divided into two meets to facilitate year-end accounting, racing in
practice continues uninterrupted from Thusday through April 3, 2011.
The 2010 Holiday Meet offers live racing four days each week, Thursday
through Sunday, from Thursday through December 31. With the exception of the
final week of the month, post time is 5:30 p.m. (EST) on Thursdays and Fridays
and 1:10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission and parking are free every
day.
There will be no live racing December 23-25. The track will continue its
tradition of racing the entire week after Christmas, with first post at 1:10
p.m. Sunday through Thursday, December 26-30. With New Year’s Eve falling on
Friday this year, however, Turfway will break with its daytime tradition and run
at 5:30 p.m. as part of the track’s first annual Track Bash New Year’s Eve
party.
Holiday Meet weekends are highlighted by four stakes, each carrying a $50,000
purse:
12/04 — Holiday Inaugural S. (f&m, 3&up, six
furlongs)
12/11 — My Charmer S. (f&m, 3&up, 1 1/16
miles)
12/18 — Prairie Bayou S. (3&up, 1 1/8 miles)
12/26 — Gowell S. (2yo, f, six furlongs)
The track’s popular Dollar Fridays return for the Holiday Meet, with dollar
draft beer and hot dogs, games and prizes, and local bands extending the party
beyond the last race. Bands booked for the meet are Fibbion Handful (Friday),
Doghouse (December 10), Code 9 (December 17), and the high-powered party band
Color Blind on New Year’s Eve.
On opening weekend, Turfway and Cincinnati country radio station WUBE will
team up with the United States Marine Corps Reserve for the Marines’ annual Toys
for Tots campaign. WUBE morning drive DJs Chris Carr & Company and members of
the Corps will set up Camp Carr for Kids on the Turfway lawn and camp out 54
consecutive hours beginning at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday and closing at noon on
Saturday. Chris Carr & Company will broadcast live from Camp Carr Thursday and
Friday. New, unwrapped toys may be dropped off any time during the campout.
Turfway will continue its four-day schedule in January. Post time will remain
5:30 p.m. on Fridays and 1:10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays; Thursdays will move
to 1:10 p.m. as well.
The track drops to three days a week, Friday through Sunday, for February,
March, and April and adds a daytime card on Presidents Day, February 21.