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Charles Town is a racetrack and gambling establishment center which is located in Charles Town, West Virginia. It is around 60 miles from Baltimore and approximately 10 miles from the historic Harpers Ferry.

It is presently owned by Gaming and Properties, and the day-to-day operations are managed by the Penn National Gaming. They bought the center back in 1997.

Charles Town is home to among the smallest racetracks in the US, with a six-furlong oval track typically resulting in races held over the four-and-a-half and five furlongs. It is referred to as conventional dirt, and there are currently no strategies to build a grass course.

The primary track has a width of 60 feet and has a four-and-a-half furlong chute, which allows route races to be held at CharlesTown.

The track possesses a cutting edge casino, which was the very first to be constructed in West Virginia. Sports betting has actually been offered at this place because August 2018.

There is also a 153-room hotel on-site. The track likewise possesses a lawn confined grandstand and clubhouse, with the previous having the ability to seat as much as 3,500 spectators.

Racing takes location all-year-round at Charles Town with live race-days usually happening Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The track takes a brief break around the vacation season before recommencing in mid-January. It was the very first East Coast track to hold live racing during the winter season months.

Charles Town only hosts Thoroughbred racing at the track. There are currently no plans to present Quarter Horse contests.

The track holds a number of valuable stakes races throughout the season, with the West Virginia Breeders Classic being the standout contest. This occasion pays over $500,000 to the winning connections, while the overall handbag for the day has recently increased above the million-dollar mark.

Charles Town Racetrack History

Charles Town opened in 1933 and became the first pari-mutuel betting track in West Virginia. The first live race-day was staged on December 2 and was organized by Albert Boyle of the Shenandoah Valley Jockey Club.

The owners invested $160,000 in order to get the place as much as scratch and to ensure that the West Virginia venue was fit to phase winter season racing. Despite a number of naysayers suggesting that Charles Town would have a hard time to get visitors through the door, the track saw numbers increase over the first decade regardless of the perilously cold conditions.

Hall of fame jockey Bill Hartack was a routine at the track throughout the early days, and he set a number of performance history - a lot of which still stand today. He once rode 24 winners during Charles Town's 24-day winter season satisfy.

John F. Kennedy and his partner visited the track in 1960 as part of their presidential campaign.

In 1969, Barbara Jo Ruben became the first female jockey to win a pari-mutuel race in the US, with the 19-year-old guidingCohesion home by half-a-length. She went on to have an incredible career and was welcomed back to the track in 2019 to mark the anniversary of the occasion.

The track closed for 2 weeks in 1979 with all horsemen asked to leave the premises, although racing quickly recommenced, with Sunday being contributed to the calendar quickly after the re-opening.

The very first running of the West Virginia Breeders' Classic was held at the track and was arranged by NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff.The inaugural prize purse included $100,000 and was won by local raider Onion Juice.

The track was purchased by Penn National Gaming in 1997, and they carried out a $175,000,000 upgrade of the facilities.They built new barns and opened a multi-million dollar simulcast center.

The Charles Town Classic was held for the very first time in 2009, with inaugural race available to older horses running over a mile and one eighth. Researcher won the first two renewals of this contest.With a prize bag of over $1 million, the race continues to bring in a top quality field and is one of the wealthiest contests in the US.

Charles Town Track Configuration and Bias

When the track rides fast (which occurs throughout the bulk of the summertime months), this often prevents closers. The quick dirt at Charles Town tends to enable frontrunners to get enough utilize to win wire-to-wire, and this is a crucial aspect of summertime racing in West Virginia.

Frontrunners frequently have a hard time when the rain has boiled down, and the track is riding careless.

There has been plenty of racing at CharlesTown in 2019, and the statistics suggest that there is a relatively even split when it concerns post positions. In sprint races, the within positions have the edge, with stalls one and two producing 15.8 and 15.9 percent of the winners, respectively.

Stalls 3 and 7 were likewise relatively productive, with 14.4 and 14.6 percent of horses starting here getting in the winner's enclosure, respectively.

Stall 9 was the poorest starting position, with simply 11 of the 169 runners being drawn in this slot managing to protect victory (6.5 percent).

In path races, the within stalls likewise produced the highest number of winners. Stall 2 had 18.6 percent of the winners, while the inside position yielded 17.6 percent of all winning thoroughbreds. Stall five revealed a fairly bad return of just over 10 percent, while just one of the 12 runners starting in stall nine went into the winner's enclosure.

Neither of the 2 horses who began in stall 10 were initially to pass the post.

Charles Town Racing Season

Charles Town is one of a handful of tracks in the US to host year-round racing. The West Virginia venue takes a small break for the holiday before racing returns at the start of the fiscal year. Racing normally happens Thursday-Sunday although they frequently stage extra cards on Thanksgiving and Labor Day.

There are a variety of stakes races held at the track and these command decent-size handbags. The standout races consist of the Charles Town Mile and the West Virginia Breeders' Classic.