GREAT FALLS – Horse racing returns to the northcentral Montana sports landscape this weekend as the Great Falls Turf Club conducts the first two sessions of a six-day meet.
Action starts at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Cascade County-owned Expo Park track, where horse racing has been conducted for many decades. Once a staple of summer sports action across Montana, horse racing is now held only in Miles City and Great Falls.
Sparkey Kottke, president of the local turf organization, predicted a busy month of racing.
“We’re planning on at least eight races each day (Saturday and Sunday) for our first two weekends, and probably 10 during the State Fair,” Kottke said Tuesday.
“A lot depends on horses and jockeys but we’ve got a lot of trainers coming back,” Kottke said. “Jesse Vallejo out of Gillette (Wyoming) is going to have 34 horses and Buckshot Nelson from up on the Hi-Line will have 10. These are real good horse people.”
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This is the fourth consecutive year that racing has been sponsored by the local turf club, after the sport was shut down during COVID. The state horse racing board approved the dates of July 13-14, 20-21 and 27-28.
General admission fees will be $8 for the first two weekends, with reserved tables of four for $100. During the two days of racing during Montana State Fair, there will be no admission fees for the races.
A highlight of action this weekend will be trials for the C.M. Russell Quarterhorse Futuity, a $20,000-added event. The bottom purses for races will be $6,000.
Trainers from Canada, Montana and Arizona have horses in stables at the track. Kottke said, as usual, jockeys are in short supply but more are on the way.
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