Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem June 25, 2026

A good Thursday morning to you all! Opening and closings this weekend as we kick off our summer season at Colonial today and the final races at Aqueduct will be conducted later this weekend. We’ll talk more about the Big A in the Monday Morning Message, but today, I wanted to give some thoughts and insights on Colonial as we get set to start here in Virginia. 

Colonial has seen slow and steady growth since reopening in 2019 and it’s crazy to think this is now the eighth season since the reopening. I can very much still remember the first night and even the first race. The horse’s name had Charlie in it, but I know it was the six horse and had orange and white silks and won on the front end. What was crazy was that it was a full field and for much of the stretch it looked as though the other horses were going to blast on by that six horse, but he just kept digging and got a narrow win in the end. 

Racing will be conducted on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday schedule through closing day, which will be Labor Day Monday, September 7. We also have a special card of jump races this Monday with an early start at 10:45 a.m. (EDT). So that’s kind of a fun little wrinkle in the schedule. 

Key bets to watch are both the early and late Pick 5s, which have a carryover provision and are priced at 12% takeout. There’s a new Late Pick 3 featuring a $3 minimum and 15% takeout. Hopefully, both wager types do well amongst players and yield good support and payoffs, so we can see more wagers come down in rake in the future. 

As far as the courses, our turf course is 180 feet wide and split into an inner and outer course. The inner course is about 7 furlongs with the outer course closer to a mile. The inner generally hosts the two-turn mile races along with some 1 1/16-mile events. The outer is home to the turf sprints as well as some longer turf routes including the races like the Beverly D. Stakes and the Arlington Million which is a mile and a quarter. The Million card will be on Saturday August 1st. 

The dirt oval has begun to be more utilized in recent years as we’ve added more race days. It’s a mile and a quarter circumference so races up to a mile and one eighth are just one turn. The first couple races of the season are at five and one half furlongs and it’s an extremely quick run into the wide, sweeping, far turn in those races, so post position and finding good position early can really matter. The dirt course also tends to play very fast time wise, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s speed favoring. In my experience here, most biases have been pretty short lived and correct quickly, in part I think because we do get a fair amount of rain in Virginia throughout the summer months and that can change a course quickly. 

It is worth noting especially the first half of the season to keep an eye on forecasts. Rain can come and come suddenly here and while the course generally holds water pretty well, when we get those classic Virginia storms, sometimes they can overwhelm the grass course and force us onto the dirt. So do pay attention to that if you’re playing horizontal wagers. 

Overall it’s a really fun meeting with good horses, connections, and pool sizes. I believe Colonial is on the cusp of jumping up the summer ranks of tracks and this year will be another step in that direction. Hope to see you in Virginia this summer or playing Colonial via TwinSpires!