During a lengthy meeting of the Texas Racing Commission (TRC) on August 14, the Commission awarded race dates for 2003. Although there was much speculation about a restructuring of the calendar for the tracks, 2003 will look pretty much as it did this year.

Manor Downs will race Quarter Horses from March 1 through April 13, and then it will run its Thoroughbred meet from April 19 through May 11. In total, Manor will run 14 days of Quarter Horse racing and eight days of Thoroughbred racing.

Sam Houston Race Park will run Thoroughbreds starting on January 1, 2003, and wrap up its winter meet on March 29. Then, it will resume Thoroughbreds on October 24 and run through the end of the year. This will provide 87 days of Thoroughbred racing.

Sam Houston will run 45 Quarter Horse days of racing from June 26 through September 7.

Lone Star Park will offer 70 days of Thoroughbred racing from April 3 through July 13 and then run 33 days of Quarter Horse racing from October 3 through November 29.

Retama Park will conduct 24 days of Quarter Horse racing from May 2 through June 22, and 51 days of Thoroughbred racing from August 1 through October 25.

Gillespie County Fair will hold its races on the weekends of July 4, July 19, August 9 and August 23.

The TRC and Saddle Brook Park decided to wait until all parties felt comfortable with the progress of construction before dates were granted to the Amarillo track.

In other business, the Commission failed to grant a pari-mutuel license to the group led by the Asmussen family for their El Primero racetrack. This means that the application will be referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for further review. Depending on SOAH's schedule, this item could come back to the TRC for review as soon as January.