Excitement building as horses return for 2nd season at Hollywood Gaming
AUSTINTOWN
The horses have begun to fill up the stalls at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course as the second live racing season nears.
“I love it here,” said Rickie Faulkner, a horseman from Berlin Center. “This is what I call home right here. I was so happy when they built this place. I used to have to travel to” Beulah Park, he said.
That track in Grove City, Ohio, was moved to Austintown to make way for Hollywood Gaming.
Faulkner was the first horseman to move horses into stalls Friday, the first day the animals could arrive. Faulkner works with his family in the business, including Joshua Faulkner, the trainer for the horses they moved into their 30 stalls.
Those horses came from Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in Chester, W.Va. That track’s season was shortened and ends today.
That early track closure at Mountaineer combined with an earlier opening – Hollywood Gaming began racing at the end of November last year – led to 2,000 stall applications for 988 spots.
“With the change in schedules in this marketplace, specifically Mountaineer, we’ve had a lot of interest from Mountaineer horsemen, and the horsemen in Ohio have certainly been receptive to coming here more than last year,” said Mark Loewe, vice president of Ohio racing with Penn National.
“I’m certainly expecting, and would be disappointed if it didn’t happen, [that] our field sizes should go up this year,” Loewe added.
Field size is the number of horses that run in one race.
Read more about reaction to the new season in Saturday;'s Vindicator or on Vindy.com.