Prairie Meadows
Encyclopedia
Prairie Meadows is a Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
and Quarter Horse
American Quarter Horse
The American Quarter Horse is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name came from its ability to outdistance other breeds of horses in races of a quarter mile or less; some individuals have been clocked at speeds up to 55 mph...
racetrack and racino
Racino
A racino is a combined race track and casino. In some cases, the gambling is limited to slot machines, but many locations are beginning to include table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette....
in Altoona, Iowa
Altoona, Iowa
Altoona is a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States and is a part of the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 15,583 at the 2010 census; a special census taken in August 2005 counted 13,301 residents....
.
History and information
Parimutuel betting
Parimutuel betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vig" is removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets...
was legalized by the state the previous year. In 1987, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Prairie Meadows.
Prairie Meadows conducted its first day of racing on March 1, 1989. However, the track lost money during its first few years of operation and filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in November 1991. Live racing was suspended for the 1992 season before revenues from off-track betting allowed racing to resume the following year.
On May 17, 1994, Polk County
Polk County, Iowa
Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 430,640 in the 2010 census, an increase from 374,601 in the 2000 census. The county seat is Des Moines, which is also the capital city of Iowa...
voters approved a referendum allowing the installation of slot machines at Prairie Meadows. On April 1, 1995, the slot machine casino opened at Prairie Meadows, and by the end of 1996, Prairie Meadows was able to pay off the bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
that were issued by the Polk County Board of Supervisors.
On December 14, 2004, Prairie Meadows added casino game
Casino game
Games available in most casinos are commonly called casino games. In a casino game, the players gamble casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes. Casino games are available in online casinos, where permitted by law...
tables after receiving state approval to do so. As a result of the high demand for these tables, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved Prairie Meadows' plans to expand its facility on January 25, 2005. Construction on the $60 million expansion began in September 2005. An addition to the casino opened in August 2006, while two new restaurants and a 1,200-seat concert hall known as "The Meadows" opened in February 2007.
On February 25, 2009, the Prairie Meadows board voted unanimously to solicit third-party proposals for construction and ownership of a 200-room hotel, at the cost of $20 to $25 million. The current timeline would have the hotel opening Jan/Feb of 2012.
Prairie Meadows is owned by Polk County and operated by a local, non-profit, 13-member board of directors. The revenues generated by Prairie Meadows are given to various community projects in the Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
area, including construction of the Iowa Events Center
Iowa Events Center
The Iowa Events Center is a public events complex located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa.-Overview:The Iowa Events Center consists of the existing Veterans Memorial Auditorium, the existing Polk County Convention Complex, the new Hy-Vee Hall, and the new Wells Fargo Arena...
complex in downtown Des Moines. Prairie Meadows' gross revenue for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008, was nearly $193 million. That total ranked second to the Horseshoe Casino
Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation
Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation was established in 1993 with its only asset being the rights to use the Horseshoe name on casinos. The corporation was a private holding company mostly owned by Jack Binion.-History:...
in Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, known until 1852 as Kanesville, Iowathe historic starting point of the Mormon Trail and eventual northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trailsis a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States and is on the east bank of the Missouri River across...
among Iowa's casinos.
Physical attributes
Prairie Meadows has a one mile dirt track with a chute for quarter horses. On site is a casino with 1,900 slot machineSlot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
s and casino game
Casino game
Games available in most casinos are commonly called casino games. In a casino game, the players gamble casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes. Casino games are available in online casinos, where permitted by law...
tables featuring games such as poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
, roulette
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
, and blackjack
Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
. The track area has also hosted free concerts by national musical acts in recent years.
Racing
The track runs three graded stakes race
Graded stakes race
A graded stakes race is a term applied since 1973 by the American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to thoroughbred horse races in the United States and Canada to describe races that derive their name from the stake, or entry fee, owners must pay...
s during the thoroughbred season. They are:
- Grade 2 Cornhusker Handicap
- Grade 3 Iowa Oaks
- Grade 3 Iowa DerbyIowa DerbyThe Iowa Derby is an American Grade III Thoroughbred horse race run annually during the last week of June at Prairie Meadows racetrack in Altoona, Iowa. Open to three-year-olds, it is contested on dirt over a distance of 11/16 miles and currently offers a purse of $250,000.-Winners since...
In addition, other animals such as ostriches have raced in the area.