Racing at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack
Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack is known for both its casino and thoroughbred horse racing. And even though the casino, which covers a thirty thousand square foot area with approximately one thousand two hundred machines, draws a great following, it is the racetrack that sees most of the action during the day. The live horse racing and casino sees more than 1.5 million visitors in a year, and preparations are again under way to ensure a successful 2008 racing season.
Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack is located in the picturesque county of Finger Lakes, which is near New York. Since the inauguration race in 1962, Finger Lakes Racetrack has been host to some of the leading horses and jockeys in the racing industry. One of those horses stands out above the rest, Fio Rito. This magnificent horse was named, in the year 1980, the New York State Horse of the Year and became a legend at the Finger Lakes Racetrack. He won nineteen of his twenty seven starts at the track and accumulated twenty eight wins from fifty starts over his racing career. An injury in 1981 ended his racing days and pushed him into retirement. He passed away at the age of twenty one, in 1996, and is the only horse that has received the honor to be buried at the Finger Lakes Racecourse.
Another rare, but wonderful, facility that was added to the Finger Lakes Racecourse in 2002, has turned the establishment into a leading training and rehabilitation facility. The addition of the Equine Swimming Facility has provided trainers and physiotherapists with a great venue to condition the horses’ muscles and exercise injured horses, with a non-stressful cardiovascular workout. This feature has proven to be invaluable to the horses that are brought here.
And as spring starts to fight its way through the snow covered ground left behind by winter, the Finger Lakes Racetrack has swung into high gear to prepare for the arrival of horses and trainers that will start trickling in next month. With a hundred and sixty day schedule announced for the 2008 season, which opens on the 19th of April 2008, the racetrack is getting ready for its forty-seventh successful season.
Racing dates to make note of include the George W. Barker Handicap ($50 000) on 26 May 2008, the New York Derby ($150 000) on 12 July 2008, New York Breeders’ Futurity ($200 000) on 4 October 2008 and the Finger Lakes Juvenile on 1 November 2008. With seventeen stakes races and a total purse estimated at $1.2 million, the action for the coming season is set to be unstoppable.
