A new era will get underway at America’s oldest lighted harness track this coming Monday (July 25) when Batavia Downs will raise the curtain on its 70th season of live harness racing.
Opening night will feature the $100,000 New York Sire Stakes division for two-year-old trotting fillies along with free racing programs and magnetic racing schedules for the fans on track. First-race post time is set for 6:15 p.m.
The 2016 season (that runs through December 10) will feature 70 race dates and will include seven matinees and three twilight programs.
Live racing will be presented on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights to begin the season with a new first-race post time of 6:15 p.m. Sunday afternoons will replace Monday nights beginning on July 31.
Holiday matinees include Labour Day (September 5) and Columbus Day (October 10). All matinee first-race post times are 1:15 p.m. A special Breeders’ Cup program on Saturday (November 5) will begin at 3:30 p.m.
The renaissance will begin with the new ‘Hotel at Batavia Downs,’ which is located trackside between the grandstand and the paddock. Racing fans can check into the 82-room facility and access the track and the gaming floor for the duration of their stay without ever having to leave the premises.
Half of the rooms in the hotel overlook the home stretch of the track and members of bataviabets.com can watch and wager from their room. There are even four balcony suites facing the track.
The hotel is slated to open in September.
Fans will see the best racing possible after ‘The Downs’ invested $125,000 in racetrack improvements under the guidance of new track superintendent, Peter Arrigenna.
Arrigenna designed and directed the re-banking of the turns, the leveling of the straightaways and then topped it off with 5,000 tons of new surface material to provide the fastest and safest racing strip possible. Once the track sets up, the competition should produce record speeds all year.
"These are very exciting times for Batavia Downs" said Todd Haight, Director/GM of Live Racing. "There has been a lot of money invested in the racing side of this facility this year between the new hotel and track improvements and the entire management and staff cannot wait for our customers to come out and enjoy them."
Over $1 million in purse money will be up for grabs in stakes races during the meet, and that will draw some of the top horses and drivers in North America to the Genesee County oval.
Eight divisions of the NYSS, each racing for an estimated $100,000, will highlight the best youthful performers in the Empire State this year, and that should provide competition for the fans that is both exciting to watch and profitable to wager on.
NYSS divisions by age, sex and gait will be at Batavia on Monday (July 25, opening night), August 7, 13, 20 and 31, and September 3, 10 and 14. And eight New York County Fair finals, each vying for $10,000, will be contested on Wednesday (September 7).
Batavia Downs’ signature stakes event, the $50,000 Robert J. Kane Memorial Pace, will be held on Saturday (October 8) and will draw some of the top older Open pacers from the northeast. The race has become a highly anticipated event by the fans as it presents an opportunity to break the all-age track record each year.
During the 70 cards of racing there will be 25 major promotions scattered throughout the year. Highlights of these special events include Sunday Dollar Days in August, the very popular wiener dog races and Family Fun Day, the first ever Racing Under Saddle (RUS) non-wagering exhibition at Batavia Downs (pending NYS Gaming approval), the Labour Day driver's bike race, a Columbus Day Chicken BBQ and another ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ promotion, when the racetrack will be giving away a pair of diamond earrings valued at $4,000.
There are buffet specials in the clubhouse every racing night all year, and the chef will once again be serving up his famous prime rib, crab leg, and shrimp buffet every Saturday night for the entire meet. All clubhouse buffet specials include gaming free play offers.
"We have put together the most aggressive entertainment package possible and believe we offer something for every member of the family all year," Haight continued. "Between the calibre of horses that will compete over the new surface and the new amenities our customers will enjoy, we are looking for our seventieth year of racing to be the most memorable one yet."
(Batavaia Downs)