Quarter Horse racing returns Sunday to the Red Mile in downtown Lexington, Ky., for six days of high-speed races spread over a 10-day period.
Racing Sunday through Tuesday, eight races per day are being offered as part of a meet awarded to Sandy Ridge Racing, a company owned by Revolutionary Racing that is building a Quarter Horse racetrack in Ashland, Ky., near the border with West Virginia. The company broke ground on the track in September, roughly one year after a casino opened on the property, and expects to host live races at the location in 2026.
The condition book for the meet lists approximately $215,000 per day in purses, with the prizes largely subsidized by the casino in Ashland. In Kentucky, track license holders are allowed to build two casinos.
The Red Mile is one of the most prominent harness tracks in the United States, and the track used to host a weekend of Quarter Horse racing over the Fourth of July holiday, but that ended in 2010. Quarter Horse racing returned in 2023 after Revolutionary Racing was awarded the license for Sandy Ridge, as a stopgap until the track was up and running.
For the 2023 meet at the Red Mile, five races were run each day. That was expanded to seven races per day last year.
According to the American Quarter Horse Association, 332 horses started in the 42 races held at the Red Mile last year.
“With the amount of calls and communication from horsemen thus far, we are expecting an even bigger and better year in 2025,” said Mike Anifantis, the racing secretary for the meet.
Post time for the first race each day is 1:30 p.m. Eastern. The track’s signal is expected to be exported to nearly 900 wagering outlets each day, track officials said.
Sixty-one horses are entered on opening day, with a field of eight for the $60,000 feature, the 220-yard Cherokee Stakes. The eight horses were bred in seven different states.