Storm Damages Barns at Charles Town

High winds damaged three barns at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races the evening of July 5, but no horses or humans were injured and the track does not expect to miss any race dates.

Charles Town vice president of racing operations Erich Zimny said the nature of the storm that struck at about 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday was still being determined—straight line winds or a tornado. Either way, those winds impacted three barns and some power lines, causing a section of one of the barn roofs to completely come off.

Zimny said the three damaged barns were in a diagonal line and two of those had a terraced roof that was built over the original flat roof. He said the terraced roof was damaged on those two barns, but the third, which did not have the flat roof underneath, had a portion completely ripped away, exposing seven stalls. Upon initial inspection by Charles Town staff, the damage to the barns appeared to be confined to roofing.

About a half-dozen horses had to be relocated from the barn that lost a portion of its roof. As repairs are made to all three barns, some additional horses may have to be temporarily relocated.

Temporary lighting is expected to be added to illuminate parts of the barn area without power. As power is restored, horses based at barns without power who are scheduled to race will be given the option to run out of a barn with power. Barring any further developments from engineers on site or the testing of the track lighting system, live racing is anticipated to move forward as scheduled July 6 with a first-race post time of 7 p.m. 

Zimny said he wouldn't yet be able to estimate damage in terms of dollars. He said the track was lucky that no people or horses were hurt.

"We were pretty fortunate," Zimny said.