Mainly cloudy with snow showers around in the morning. High 38F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 30%..
Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds late. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low near 30F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: December 20, 2024 @ 12:40 am
Jockey Arnaldo Bocachica (left), on top of “Runaldo”, raises his first in the air after securing first place in the 2024 Sam Huff West Virginia Breeders Classic at Charles Town Races.
Jockey Arnaldo Bocachica (left), on top of “Runaldo”, raises his first in the air after securing first place in the 2024 Sam Huff West Virginia Breeders Classic at Charles Town Races.
CHARLES TOWN — Following approval by the West Virginia Racing Commission, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has launched their 2025 live racing calendar. In addition to the calendar launch, Charles Town Races has announced that there will be a 5% overnight purse increase that will take effect on 2025’s opening night.
Racing for the year will commence on Thursday, January 2. A total of 160 nights of racing are scheduled.
Action will occur Wednesday through Saturday for the months of January, February, November and December. The only exception to the schedule will be on Thursday, November 27, when the races will be paused for Thanksgiving.
For the remainder of the year, action will occur Thursday through Saturday.
In special events, the Charles Town Classic is scheduled for Friday, August 22, and the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics are scheduled for Saturday, October 11. The Charles Town Classic has a post time of 5 p.m. and the Breeders Classics’ post time has yet to be announced. All other races throughout the year will have a post time of 7 p.m.
Charles Town intends on submitting their stakes schedule for the year in the coming weeks. The submission will include the stakes for the Charles Town Classic, Charles Town Oaks, Robert Hilton Memorial, Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon and West Virginia Breeders’ Classics.
Last year’s Charles Town Classic (GII) featured a $1 million purse, which was the highest monetary reward of the year. The second highest purse of the year was the Charles Town Oaks (GII) at $750,000, which was the race that preceded the Classic on the same night. The Robert Hilton Memorial and Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon each had a purse of $500,000.
The vast majority of Charles Town’s non-graded races had a purse of $75,000 throughout 2024. Now with the overnight purse increase, those races will have a purse of $78,750 in 2025.
No subscription is required to sign up for Journal newsletters. Some links may take you to stories that require a subscription after a limited number of free views. Manage your newsletter subscriptions in your user dashboard.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Have the latest local news delivered every day so you don’t miss out on updates.
The week’s most-read stories, delivered Sunday mornings.
Each day’s obituaries, delivered to your inbox.
We’ll send alerts to you as news happens.
Get our expert short-term forecast, summary of the weather details and news of any severe weather. Delivered every morning.
Catch up on high school sports every Saturday morning.
Weekly roundup of local sports news, delivered Sunday mornings.
Post community events for free from your user dashboard. No subscription required.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
Français 
English