FINAL WEEKEND OF LIVE RACING AT SUFFOLK DOWNS SET FOR JUNE 29-30; Entries draw Tuesday for weekend card set to feature over $1 million in purses and incentives including $100,000 stakes race
East Boston, MA — Live racing will return to Suffolk Downs for the final time in the track's 84 year history on Saturday and Sunday, June 29-30. Entries for the weekend-long live racing and food truck festival are scheduled for Tuesday, June 25 for two days of racing featuring over $1 million in purses and incentives alongside a $100,000 stakes race as well as four $50,000 stakes races for horses bred in Massachusetts.
The featured race of the weekend will be the $100,000 James B. Moseley Stakes which is a black-type race for fillies and mares and will be run at about five furlongs on the turf. The race is named in the honor of the late James B. Moseley, an integral part of the history of the racetrack who, alongside John Hall, II, reopened and revitalized the track in 1991.
Over the course of the weekend, there will be four stakes races restricted to horses foaled in Massachusetts – the $50,000 Massachusetts Stallion Stakes and the $50,000 Ask Queenie Dirt Mile on Saturday along with the $50,000 John Kirby Stakes and $50,000 Thomas F. Moran Stakes on Sunday.
The Ask Queenie Stakes, which will be run for the inaugural time, is named in honor of Ask Queenie, one of the most popular and successful Massachusetts-bred horses in history. Bred by longtime local breeder Lloyd Lockart, the chestnut mare was trained by his daughter Lori Lockhart and owned by his granddaughter, Laurine Barreira. Ask Queenie retired in 2010 with 27 wins from 63 starts and over $780,000 in career earnings and 20 wins against stakes competition. Since her retirement, she has been a broodmare in Florida.
On Sunday, June 30, the track will be selling commemorative Suffolk Downs t-shirts with the proceeds to go towards Thoroughbred aftercare.
Following the final live racing weekend scheduled for June 29-30, the track will remain open year-round for simulcasting. Sterling Suffolk Racecourse (SSR), the company that operates racing and simulcasting at Suffolk Downs, is currently working alongside the New England HPBA and the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association (MTBA) on plans to refurbish and return live racing to the Great Barrington Fairgrounds in Great Barrington, MA and to continue simulcasting operations in Boston.