At its October 4th meeting, the Texas Racing Commission (TRC) awarded the 2008 race dates for Texas racetracks. The 2008 live racing calendar for 2008 closely mirrors the live racing calendar this year.

Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie was awarded 65 days of live Thoroughbred racing and 31 days of live Quarter Horse racing. The Lone Star 2008 Thoroughbred meet will run from April 10 through July 27, while the Fall Meeting of Champions (Quarter Horse meet) will run from September 26 through November 29.

Lone Star’s 2008 Fall Meeting of Champions schedule will be slightly different this year’s meeting, which begins a 32-date run on Friday, October 5 at 6:35 p.m. Instead of running Wednesday-Saturday over nine weeks this year, the 2008 season will open one week earlier and feature Thursday-Saturday racing in October and a Wednesday-Saturday schedule in November. As is the case this year, there will be no racing on the day before Thanksgiving (Nov. 26, 2008) or Thanksgiving (Nov. 27, 2008) itself.

The schedule for Lone Star’s 2008 Spring Thoroughbred Season will mirror the 2007 schedule, with racing every Thursday-Sunday and a special Memorial Day program on Monday, May 26, 2008.

Sam Houston Race Park was granted a total of 62 Thoroughbred dates over two meets, as well as 34 Quarter Horse dates. The track will run Thoroughbreds 44 days from January 4 to April 5 and 18 days from November 28 to December 23. The track also added a 2007 race date on New Year’s Eve, which means Sam Houston was awarded eight fewer dates than the track has scheduled this year.

Sam Houston’s Quarter Horse meet will be conducted June 26 through September 6.

Retama Park near San Antonio was granted a 35-day Thoroughbred meet and a 21-day Quarter Horse meet. The Thoroughbred meet will run from September 5 to November 22, which makes it three more live racing days than this year’s Thoroughbred meet currently underway.

Retama’s 2008 Quarter Horse meet will run from April 25 through June 21.

Manor Downs near Austin was granted 18 days of live racing for its traditional mixed meet. The meet will run from February 23 through April 20.

Finally, the Gillespie County Fairgrounds in Fredericksburg will offer eight days of mixed racing from July 4 to August 24.