Altoona, IA – The 2024 live horse racing season at Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Altoona, IA will conclude with two stakes filled cards on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, a ten-race card starting at 6 PM CT will be topped by four Quarter Horse Championship stakes including the $111,560 Altoona Derby for three-year-old qualifiers, the $253,150 Valley Junction Futurity (GIII) for two-year-old qualifiers and the $50,000 Two Rivers (GIII) for highly regarded aged runners going 400 yards.
Closing night will be highlighted by an Iowa Classic Night program featuring four Quarter Horse stakes races and eight Thoroughbred stakes races on a thirteen-race program that starts at 4 PM CT.
The all Iowa-bred Thoroughbred stakes action kicks off Saturday with the 31st running of the $110,000 Donna Reed for fillies and mares, carded as the sixth race of the night and scheduled for a 6:07 PM CTstart.
Two multiple winners at the meet will have opportunities to become five-time winners this season on Iowa Classic Night.
In the $110,000 Dan Johnson Sprint, the four-year-old gelding Wearacap will face five foes as he attempts to win for the fifth time in six races this season under Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame jockey Glenn Corbett.
In the $110,000 Governor Terry E. Branstad, the four-year-old gelding Seventeen Black, with leading rider Alex Birzer named to ride, will try for his fifth consecutive victory at Prairie Meadows after shipping in from California earlier this season.
Seventeen Black faces a talented set of six challengers that includes multiple stakes winner and 2022 Iowa Derby hero Ain’t Life Grand, whose career earnings are just short of $800,000.
Saturday’s card opens with four talent-loaded Iowa-bred Quarter Horse stakes races, highlighted by the $126,740 Polk County Derby and the $163,460 Jim Bader Futurity.
