Yellowstone Downs opens Saturday with 10 races

August 25, 2011 - Saturday's opening day of horse racing at Metra Park's Yellowstone Downs will include 10 races involving thoroughbreds, quarter horses and paints.

Post time will be at 1:30 p.m. Admission is $5.

The race card will include the 300-yard Yellowstone Downs Straightaway Inaugural for quarter horses and paints and the seven-furlong Yellowstone Downs Thoroughbred Allowance.

With close to 200 horses already on the grounds -- and more arriving each day -- six of Saturday's races have full fields of eight horses. The other four have seven.

"They're set up for an exciting day of racing," new racing secretary Fred Hutton said. "A lot of the country is struggling with field size. You can look at the card (for Saturday), they entered up pretty good. There's not too many empty gates for the entire day.

"I'm proud of the horsemen. They did a great job."

There will also be racing on Sunday beginning at 1:30 p.m.