Horse Racing

‘Why Go Through This Every Year?’: Commission Chair Pushes Synthetic Surface For Charles Town



With 11 fatalities thus far in 2021 and closures this week to evaluate the track surface, Charles Town Races came under fire at this week’s meeting of the West Virginia Racing Commission. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, WVRC Chairman Ken Lowe Jr. strongly recommended that Charles Town consider replacing it’s six-furlong dirt oval with a synthetic surface.

“Let’s truly think about working together to figure out a way that Charles Town can go to synthetic,” Lowe said. “I don’t see an answer to this problem that we have every year here. I know [the track superintendent] is doing a great job. Management’s trying…. But why go through this every year? Let’s figure out a way to do it so there can possibly be a synthetic surface at Charles Town that solves most of the problems with a proper drainage system, et cetera. I think that’s the solution.”

Charles Town’s vice president of racing operations, Erich Zimney, responded: “It’s certainly something that will have to be discussed internally here, and I would caution against anything rash as far as mandating anything.”

Read more at the TDN.





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