Prairie Meadows Picks

Prairie Meadows is a pureblood racetrack situated in Altoona, Iowa. It is around 5 miles from Des Moines and also hosts routine quarter-horse meetings throughout the year.


Meetings are held throughout the summertime, with action typically occurring between May and October. Racing is held Thursday to Sunday (inclusive), although special race-days are occasionally held earlier in the week.


As well as regular race-days, the track also hosts shows on a semi-regular basis and is home to 1,900 slot machines, which can be discovered in the on-site casino. A hotel has actually also been constructed on the complex. Simulcast betting is also now readily available at the track.


The most noteworthy races at the track are theGrade II Cornhusker Handicap, the Grade III Iowa Oaks, and the Iowa Derby. It likewise hosts the Bank of America Challenge Championships each year.


The track is owned and operated by Polk County and is run by a not-for-profit board of 13 members, and this has actually stayed in location because it opened in 1989. Revenues from the track are typically dispersed to numerous charitable causes and companies located close by.


Prairie Meadows Racetrack History


Prairie Meadows has a fairly short history, having actually just been established in 1989. It first received its license 5 years earlier, which had been approved by the Iowa Racing and GamingCommission. This came soon after Parimutuel betting had been legalized in the state just 12 months earlier.


They identified a 240-acre site for building and construction to start, and $40 million was spent on guaranteeing the track was completed to a high requirement.


The inaugural race-day was held on March 1,1989, and although attendance stayed steady over the next number of years, the track submitted for insolvency in 1991.


Racing was momentarily suspended as a result, and no live race meets occurred in 1992. However, profits from off-track betting started to gradually filter through, and racing was able to continue in the summer of 1993.


Slots were installed in 1994, which helped the track raise extra earnings. This allowed the track to settle some arrearages and bonds which had been issued by the Polk County Board of Supervisors. Casino games were quickly included to the facility in December, following approval from the state. These stayed in place up until further expansion 11 years later.


A dining establishment and auditorium quickly followed, with the venue expanding beyond the conventional racetrack.


In 2004, Roses in May set a race record in theCornhusker Handicap with 1:46.63 over a distance of 1 1/8 miles.


Fort Larned was the winner of the 2012 Cornhusker Handicap for trainer Ian Wilkes before going on to win at the Breeders' Cup Classic later that year. The race was held at Santa Anita.


The legalization of sports wagering in Iowa was formally granted in 2019, with the costs being signed at the beginning of May.This need to help increase revenue at the track, with William Hill just recently announced as the official wagering partner of the venue. The track reported that $8.5 countless sports wagers were put at the track and gambling establishment in 2018.


Prairie Meadows Track Configuration and Bias


The venue operates simply a single track, which is a one-mile oval on the dirt surface area. There is also a chute, which is utilized in quarter-horse satisfies. The range from the last turn to the goal is 1,033 feet.


There is no visible and stable track predisposition at Prairie Meadows. Every design of racing has a reasonable shot on this track.


Winning Post Position


There was a fairly even spread of winners at Prairie Meadows in both sprints and range contests. Over the shorter trip,15.6 percent of horses who were made use of the inside entered the winner's enclosure. The within draw proved relatively productive compared to stalls 2 and 3, which have yielded just 12 and 14.2 percent of winners, respectively, in 2019.


Stall four was the finest position to be drawn, with 18.2 percent of winners coming from this particular beginning position.Although less runners were attracted stall 10, it produced 10.6 percent of winners in sprint races.


Only 34 runners were attracted stall 9, with just 2 winners produced so far. This relates to a 5.9 percent strike rate.


Over the longer trip, stall 7 proved particularly rewarding, with four of the 10 runners attracted this position finishing in front. This was an appealing 40 percent strike rate.


Stalls one and five were also relatively favorable, with 21 percent of winners being attracted each of these positions. Stalls three and four produced fairly solid outcomes (10.5 percent), while simply one horse drawn in stall 2 has actually gotten in the winner's enclosure up until now.


None of the 7 runners that have actually been drawn in stalls nine and 10 have actually managed to select up a success in 2019. The route races have tended to draw in smaller sized fields at Prairie Meadows.


Prairie Meadows Racing Season


Racing has actually traditionally happened atPrairie Meadows throughout the summer months. Currently, racing begins in April and concludes in late October. Thoroughbred and racing are both held at the track and are sometimes staged on the same card.


Live race-days normally occur onThursday through Sunday and are held in the afternoon.


There are a variety of crucial races happening at the track, with the Grade II Cornhusker Handicap the standout race. This has seen a variety of horses race at the Breeders' Cup later on in the year. It is open to 3-year-olds and is held over 1 1/8 miles. It was originally staged at Ak-Sar-Ben Racetrack, which lay in Nebraska.