Meet opens on heels of record season

Mahoning Valley looks to keep its momentum going as it opens its winter-spring meeting Friday. The season at the Austintown, Ohio, track, which extends into late April, generally will run Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, but Friday cards are scheduled for opening day and Nov. 23.

Mahoning Valley had a record-setting 2017-18 meet in handle, attendance, and field size, and track officials anticipate this meet being equally popular, with average daily purses of $120,000. More than 1,800 applications were received for the 988 available stalls on the backstretch.

The meet’s stakes schedule is highlighted by the $250,000 Steel Valley Sprint, which got a purse boost of $50,000 this year, and the $75,000 Mahoning Distaff, both open-company stakes set for Monday, Nov. 19. This will be the fourth renewal of the Steel Valley Sprint, which annually has drawn runners with graded stakes experience to the track.

“Trainers based in the Midwest and Northeast have already inquired about the two stakes, and we are looking forward to bringing some of the top sprinters to our track,” Mark Loewe, vice president of Ohio racing operations for track owner Penn Gaming, said in a release.

The rest of Mahoning Valley’s stakes are $75,000 events restricted to Ohio-breds, beginning with the Cardinal Handicap and Ohio Debutante on the Breeders’ Cup simulcast card Nov. 3. The track also has scheduled the First Lady Stakes on Nov. 10; the Glacial Princess Stakes and Ruff/Kirchberg Memorial Handicap on Nov. 17; and the Bobbie Bricker Memorial Handicap and Joshua Radosevich Memorial Stakes on Dec. 1.