Penn National Picks, Entries and Results

Penn National Track Details

Address: 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028

Website: www.hollywoodpnrc.com

Meeting:  Like Penn National’s fellow Pennsylvania track Parx Racing, racing is held year-round, culminating in the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile run in early June. Penn Mile Day is the biggest day of racing of the year at Penn National, and also features the $200,000 Penn Oaks and six other stakes races worth $100,000. In late fall, the track offers the $200,000 Fabulous Strike for older dirt sprinters, which is accompanied on the same card by the $100,000 Swatara and $100,000 Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies. Penn National offers both dirt and turf racing, though the latter is confined to the warmer months of the year.

History:  Penn National opened on August 30, 1972 in Grantville, PA, just 17 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg. A casino, known as Hollywood Casino, opened at Penn National in 2008. In 2010, a bottom-level claimer named Rapid Redux was bought by Robert Cole, Jr. and trainer David Wells at Penn National. After initially mixed results, the unassuming claimer would go on to win 22 straight races, a North American record, beginning on December 2, 2010 at Penn. The inaugural Penn Mile, the track’s biggest race, was run in 2013, and achieved graded stakes status two years later. The race was meant to fill a void on the calendar for 3-year-old turf horses, as no other major races in the division occur around the time it’s run.

Facilities:  Being a racino, Penn National offers over 2,480 slot machines and table games, including poker, roulette, blackjack and craps. The track also offers sports betting, and was the first place in Pennsylvania to do so. Horse Racing is conducted on a one-mile dirt oval and seven-furlong turf course.