East Boston, MA — Suffolk Downs will host its third scheduled live racing and food truck festival weekend of the summer this Saturday and Sunday, August 4-5. On Saturday, the average field size is 11 horses per race and 148 total horses have been entered for the day which features over $500,000 in total purses and awards.
The $100,000 Jill Jellison Memorial Dash will highlight the 13-race card on Saturday. Scheduled to be run at about five furlongs on the turf, the black type event has drawn a field of ten fillies and mares including D’Boldest, the winner of the 2017 edition of the race for trainer Jose Camejo. Regular rider Abel Lezcano has the mount on the eight-year-old daughter of D’Wildcat. In addition to the stakes race race, there are six other turf races carded for Saturday.
Over the course of the weekend, there will be two stakes races restricted to horses foaled in Massachusetts – the $50,000 Massachusetts Sire Stakes on Saturday and the $50,000 George Brown Memorial Turf Mile on Sunday.
The track will also continue the $5,000 Jockey Challenge for the third weekend. The jockeys will be awarded points based on the their finish position in a race with six points for finishing 1st, five points for 2nd, four points for 3rd, three points for 4th and two points for 5th. For any finish between 6th and last place, one point will be awarded. At the end of the weekend, the three jockeys that accumulate most points will be awarded a cash bonus of $2000 for 1st, $1500 for 2nd, $1000 for 3rd and $500 for 4th. Dylan Davis took home the top prize in June and Pedro Monterrey, Jr. got top honors in July.
Post time for the 13 race card is at 12:55 p.m. and gates open at 11:00 a.m. In addition to live racing, the track will be hosting a food truck festival featuring food trucks from numerous local vendors, craft beer, live music and family fun activities.
Live racing will continue on Sunday with 12 races.
Suffolk Downs has a request pending before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to add another weekend of live racing to its 2018 schedule, September 15-16. It is expected the MGC will take up the request at its August meeting.
For more information, visit www.suffolkdowns.com
About Suffolk Downs:
Built by 3,000 workers in just 62 days when Massachusetts authorized pari-mutuel wagering in 1935, the historic track has been a showcase for some of the most famous names in Thoroughbred racing history, including Seabiscuit, Whirlaway, John Henry, Cigar and Skip Away.
