Mountaineer Park Cancels Aug. 1 West Virginia Derby
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Photo: Coady Photography
The field races into the first turn in the 2019 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park
Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort has canceled this year's West Virginia Derby (G3) and its supporting card Aug. 1, citing the "health and welfare of all involved," the track said in a press release.
The West Virginia Derby, annually the centerpiece race on the Mountaineer Park racing calendar, was planned as a $500,000 race this year, the same value it was last year prior to COVID-19. The track also intended to stage the $200,000 West Virginia Governor's Stakes (G3) on the Aug. 1 program, which was to have taken place in the afternoon, a departure from its usual nighttime cards.
The cancellation comes after the track stated earlier this month that the card would take place without spectators as a COVID-19 safety measure.
"We anxiously await next year's West Virginia Derby and look forward to making it a great day of racing," Jason Pugh, general manager of Mountaineer Park, wrote in a release.
Although the track canceled the West Virginia Derby, live racing continues there, conducted on a Sunday-Wednesday schedule.
The day-to-day racing product at Mountaineer is contested for modest purses, usually with per race values of between $6,000-$18,000, drawing mostly local horses and those from nearby states such as Ohio.
In contrast, the West Virginia Derby is often filled with out-of-state invaders. Last year, Mr. Money and Silver Dust came to Mountaineer from Kentucky, winning the West Virginia Derby and West Virginia Governor's Stakes for trainer Bret Calhoun, respectively.
The cancellation of the West Virginia Derby follows a week of numerous positive COVID-19 tests for jockeys that have caused some tracks to close their facilities to out-of-state riders.
Gabe Saez, Jack Gilligan, Feargal Lynch, Florent Geroux, Abel Lezcano, Joe Bravo, and Carol Cedeno—jockeys that do not regularly ride at Mountaineer Park—won stakes races on West Virginia Derby Day last year.
Belterra Park in Ohio has also placed a restriction on certain horses and horsemen shipping to its grounds. Only horses/horsemen from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are permitted to ship into the track, according to a post on its July 17 overnight.