Rillito Park Racetrack prepares for closing weekend of 2023 season

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - It’s the final weekend in the 80th anniversary season of horse racing at Rillito Park Racetrack.

The nine-weekend season wraps up this Saturday and Sunday, April 1-2.

Winners are averaging $8,000 per race, that’s more than $1.3 million for the season. For the first time, the track administrators collected data using Stride Safe sensors ensuring the safety of the quarter horses. Using a system of green, yellow and red alerts veterinarians can use the information to treat horses in need.

At this time there are no penalties against red alerts since this is an experiment.

“You’re putting on a show every single day,” General Manager Mike Weiss said. “You have your weekdays where the horses are training, weekends where they’re actually racing. Our purse money was way up so we attracted some better horses and between the crowd and the students and the excitement that they bring, this is a lasting memory.”

The next two days will be filled with nine races a day and music, and track officials promise a good time.

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