Prairie Meadows to race 10 harness dates in 2010

Prairie Meadows in Iowa on Thursday received approval to race a 10-date Standardbred meet from Oct. 1-16, with $55,000 per day in purses. The track will also race a 67-date Thoroughbred meet from April 24-Aug. 7 and a 26-day Quarter Horse meet from Aug. 13-Sept. 25, the first time the two breeds were separated into two different sessions at the track.

 

At first, plans called for the elimination of harness racing at Prairie Meadows with the track continuing to finance county-fair racing only. The track gave $1 million to the fairs in 2009, and has offered $750,000 in 2010. That offer was increased to $1 million if the Standardbred industry agrees to race on a compacted dirt track during the 10-date meet to avoid a cost of $350,000 to scrape the surface to its limestone base.

 

Prairie Meadows’ Racing Committee chairman Tom Whitney was quoted as saying after the 2010 dates were announced that he still hopes to eliminate harness racing at the track sometime in the near future.