As the West Virginia bull ring enters its tenth decade, Jennifer Kelly traces the story of a Blue Ridge mountain venue still on the rise
Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia is a racetrack older than Del Mar and Keeneland, its history wrapped in the ups and downs of both the sport and its home state. Though Charles Town is celebrating its 90th birthday, it is still a racetrack on the rise.
Boasting a population upwards of 1,150 horses, this tight, idiosyncratic oval – a ‘bull ring’ if ever there was one – in the state's eastern panhandle has taken advantage of its proximity to tracks like Laurel and Delaware Park and built a calendar that features two graded stakes, a Listed stakes, and a nine-race card devoted solely to state-breds.
The track’s $1 million showpiece, the G2 Charles Town Classic, and the Charles Town Oaks both attract trainers like Steve Asmussen, Bill Mott, Todd Pletcher and Cherie DeVaux.
Winners of the Classic include horses of national renown, such as Bob Baffert-trained stalwart Game On Dude, an eight-time G1 winner who scored under Mike Smith in 2013, and the Art Collector, who won back-to-back editions of Charles Town’s signature contest before claiming the Pegasus World Cup in January 2023.
The West Virginia Breeders' Classics celebrate horses sired or bred in the Mountain State, awarding upward of $31m in purse money in its 37 years.
Since its inaugural season in 1933, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has not only been home to nearly a century’s worth of racing, but also a place where foundations are deep and careers are launched.
This stalwart oval’s unique beginnings have created a place that has become a destination for some of the country’s best horses while also staying true to its roots.
First for the Mountain State
The Great Depression had state governments looking for new sources of income as the severe economic downturn impacted business and employment worldwide. In 1933, nine states – from California to New Hampshire – approved pari-mutuel wagering, knowing that the resultant taxes would bring much-needed funds. One of those states was West Virginia.
The bill to approve wagering was proposed in April and passed in June; by early October, the Shenandoah Valley Jockey Club had filed its registration for a new racetrack on the old Horse Show Grounds at Charles Town.
In eight weeks, 300 workers turned the facility into a racetrack with a 3,000-seat grandstand, a 12-horse paddock, and a clubhouse. The racing surface itself was a six-furlong dirt oval, two furlongs shorter than most racetracks, 60 feet wide with a short 660-foot stretch.
That first 20-day meeting generated $23,500 in tax revenue, demonstrating that pari-mutuel wagering could be a boon for the state. With that, Charles Town was off to the races.
Located 60 miles from Washington DC and 75 miles from Baltimore, the track offered something new for the region: winter racing. Special trains from both cities brought racegoers and their betting dollars; each day’s first post was planned with the train schedule in mind. Over its 90-year history, the track attracted names like vice-president Charles Curtis, J. Edgar Hoover, and John F. Kennedy.
In 1997, Penn Entertainment acquired Charles Town and renamed it Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Over time, the track has added a hotel, a casino, and an event center. It also remains a hub for racing in West Virginia, running 164 days in 2023. Through the sport’s many ups and downs, Charles Town remains a steadfast presence in the state’s racing scene. What explains the track’s enduring presence in the Mid-Atlantic?
Charles Town director of racing Charlie McIntosh attributes its longevity to “local community support and the farms. I think the horsemen have roots here, so to speak. It's not like a lot of seasonal tracks where you're here three months and go elsewhere throughout the year and come back for another three months. This is a year-round operation. It's kind of a little niche in the Mid-Atlantic in terms of, if you can't compete at Laurel or Colonial, you can bring a horse that might not be the best and do well here.”
Track announcer Paul Espinosa sees the longevity as a by-product of “the resilience of the people here in West Virginia. Obviously, I think a lot of people think of the state as a whole as a coal-mining area, and that's obviously not anything going on in the eastern panhandle, but you definitely think of hard workers. I know that's one thing that people in West Virginia are not afraid of is hard work.”
Charles Town continues to thrive thanks to the support from its longtime hometown, backing that has allowed the track to play a role in more than one historic occasion.
Historic connections
Not only was Charles Town the first racetrack in West Virginia, it has been home to other notable firsts and became the launch pad for two legends. 
In 1954, Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop defied the barriers of race and gender to become the first African American woman to earn a trainer’s license. After falling in love with horses as a child, Bishop started at Charles Town as a groom at age 14, and four years later started training. She passed away in 2005, her 60-year career earning her a spot in the track’s Hall of Fame.
The late 1960s saw experienced riders like Kathy Kusner and Diane Crump pursue a jockey’s license, ushering in a new era in the sport. Lifelong horsewoman Barbara Jo Rubin joined their efforts to break down that barrier.
A protest by other jockeys at Tropical Park delayed her debut until she moved to Charles Town. Two weeks after Crump became the first woman to ride as a licensed jockey, Rubin became the first licensed female jockey to win a race, riding Cohesian to a half-length victory in a 6½-furlong race at the West Virginia venue.
The track also boasts connections to jockeys Bill Hartack and Eddie Maple. Hartack began his career in 1949 at Charles Town; three years later, Hartack was leading rider and then expanded his success to lead all American jockeys the following year.
By the time he retired in 1974, Pennsylvania native Hartack had won the Kentucky Derby five times, the Preakness Stakes three times, and the Belmont Stakes once. That success earned Hartack a spot in both the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs and Charles Town’s Hall of Fame.
Another member of both Halls of Fame, Maple got his first win at age 17 aboard Swami at Charles Town in 1966. From there, the Ohio native went onto a successful career, winning the Belmont Stakes twice and piloting horses like Secretariat, Slew o’ Gold, Forty Niner, and Caveat.
What explains all of these firsts at this West Virginia hub? “We appreciate hard work and just know that when you see somebody putting in the work and grinding alongside you,” says Espinosa.
“There's that mutual respect that's sort of just built in,” he adds. “I’d like to think that’s sort of where it comes from, that people might have seen Sylvia Bishop and knew what kind of horsewoman that she was and that there's no reason why she should be any different than somebody else who might send a horse out. Same thing with Barbara Jo Rubin. Obviously, the talent is going to speak for itself.”
McIntosh attributes it to the opportunities inherent at a track like Charles Town, saying: “A lot of people, for example Bill Hartack, one of the greatest riders of all time, started at a smaller track. People start at these smaller circuits. If they excel, obviously they springboard up to the next level.”
In its nine decades, this racing community has embraced newcomers and rewarded their hard work with chances that helped propel them to the top of the game. This historic track remains an integral part of the city around it and continues to be a place that many jockeys, trainers, and owners call home.
Year-round racing
In 2023, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races operates year-round, offering the area’s owners and trainers a base for training and racing while also living and investing in the community. Its unique configuration, that six-furlong ‘bull-ring’ dirt track, also adds another layer to the historic track’s identity.
According to Charles Town native Espinosa, the area offers two advantages: weather and proximity. “The Blue Ridge Mountains seem to guard us a little bit from a lot of crazy weather. Not too cold, not too hot,” the race caller observed.
“We're also pretty close to a lot of the different racetracks. We're our own thing, but at the same time, we're close enough to a lot of other stuff to kind of make you feel not too far away.”
The location has allowed trainers like Jeff Runco and Ronney Brown to put down roots while building winning careers. According to Equibase figures, with more than 4,700 career victories, Runco currently sits at #11 on the all-time list in North America, while Brown celebrated his 3,000th win this year when Castle Light took an allowance at Charles Town.
The area is also home to owners like the Casey family, based at nearby Taylor Mountain Farm, and the late John and Cyndy McKee of Beau Ridge Farm, who stand the area’s top stallion Fiber Sonde.
Additionally, the Servis family calls the area home, its late patriarch Joe working as a jockey, a manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, and then as a steward at Charles Town for 25 years and son John following his father into the sport as the trainer of Kentucky Derby-Preakness Stakes winner Smarty Jones and Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia.
It is probably best we don’t dwell on the exploits of John Servis’s brother Jason, who was also born in Charles Town and may well be remembered for certain activities other than winning the first Saudi Cup with Maximum Security.
Hometown advantage
The configuration of Charles Town – two furlongs shorter than most American racetracks – not only makes this a singular venue, but also lends an advantage to those who understand how to train for and ride it.
Though the origins of this shorter oval are lost to time, locals have embraced it. “I do know that sometime within the last decade or two, there was a conversation with the horsemen that, if we were ever going to reconfigure the track, we got to do it now before we [build] the hotel,” Espinosa recalled.
“And I believe that the horsemen’s decision was, we kind of like it the way it is. I think that some out of towners might see the tighter configurations and think I'd rather not take the chance of giving my horse an extra variable that I don't know that they can handle. And that's just fine with the locals!”
McIntosh added: “Our stretch here is real short so you’ve got to have a rider that can adjust to a totally different style for that particular race because of the tightness of the corners or the turns. A totally different way to ride versus a mile track.”
While the majority of the racing program seldom engages nationwide attention, those two lucratIve graded stakes on the track’s calendar have attracted top-tier horses, jockeys, and trainers to Charles Town, undeterred by the challenges of the shorter track.
Roll of honor
What is more, the roll of honor for the Charles Town Classic neatly illustrates the ‘horses-for-courses’ nature of the sport, featuring no fewer than three dual winners – Researcher (2009, 2010), Imperative (2014, 2017) and Art Collector (2021, 2022), while hugely popular 2013 winner Game On Dude also finished second twice.
Won this year by leading three-year-old filly Vahva, the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks currently stands as North America’s richest sprint for three-year-old fillies; the $750,000 purse for the 2023 edition drew a ten-horse field with starters from trainers Chad Brown and Tom Amoss. As the purse has increased, the level of competition has as well, enough for the TOBA Graded Stakes Committee to raise the Oaks to G2 status.
The Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes also received a boost in purse and status. The 2023 running brought in Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles, G3 Chick Lang victor Ryvit, and graded-stakes scorer Damon’s Mound, who took home the winner’s share of $300,000 purse. Hardly surprising, then, that the Graded Stakes Committee upgraded this stakes to Listed status for 2024.
Looked at in the round, the status changes for these three stakes demonstrate what Charles Town envisions for its future, a historic racetrack investing in its next 90 years.
Coupled with the casino that adjoins it, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races occupies a special place in the Mid-Atlantic’s racing history, persisting through a near-century's worth of changes to remain a destination for stakes winners and a home for trainers and owners who want to invest in a community that embraces the sport.
Slightly off the beaten track it may be, but this iconic racetrack remains a testament to the state’s enduring passion for horse racing and the unwavering spirit of the region it serves.
• Charles Town website: www.hollywoodcasinocharlestown.com
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