Arizona Racetracks
Horse racing in Arizona is regulated by the Arizona Department of Racing. Under its watchful eye, tracks such as the Rillito Downs Park Racetrack, Turf Paradise Racecourse and Yavapai Downs Racecourse grow with each passing year, and offer the public exciting live horse racing events to attend.
Yavapai Downs Racecourse is located in the Prescott Valley and is the venue of a variety of popular graded stakes races, which has seen race horses such as Nellys Star, Simply Basic and Tezzing participate. The history of the Turf Paradise Racecourse is rooted in the dreams of Walter Cluer, who purchased a piece of land in the year 1954 and set about creating a state-of-the-art racecourse, which later became home to stakes races such as the Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Handicap and the Glendale Handicap. Located in the Catalina Mountains, the Rillito Downs Park Racetrack has been the home of the Quarter Horse Racing industry in Arizona since the early 1940s. Today it is a more diverse facility, offering Quarter horse racing, thoroughbred flat racing events, and on the odd occasion spectators can enjoy Arabian horse racing.
