Charles Town cuts Pick 3 and Daily Double takeout to 15%

Charles Town is cutting the takeout on all Pick 3 and Daily Double wagers to 15 percent, and the new pricing begins with the July 9 card. The late Pick 3 minimum and wheel rise to $3, while the late Daily Double minimum and wheel rise to $5, so the headline change for horseplayers is the sharper blended cost on two of the meet’s most-used multi-race pools. Before the switch, the Pick 3 carried a 22 percent takeout and the Daily Double sat at 19 percent, a meaningful drop that should make every dollar in those sequences go a little further.

The move also places Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races squarely inside a low-takeout lane that other tracks have already been using to court action. Monmouth Park lowered Pick 3 and Daily Double takeout to 15 percent across its card in May, while Oaklawn’s wagering menu features 15 percent takeout on its late Pick 3 and late Daily Double, which means Charles Town is matching a pricing model that has already become a selling point elsewhere in the sport. The difference is that Charles Town is pairing that value play with a late-card minimum hike, so the track is pushing players toward fuller tickets while still giving them a smaller rake on each sequence.

The change lands as Charles Town comes out of a strong first half, with trainer Ronney Brown leading the standings with 75 wins at the midpoint and Anthony Farrior next with 56. Jeff Runco and Kevin Joy were tied for third with 42 apiece, Michael Jones, Jr. had 24, and Arnaldo Bocachica topped the jockey table with 71 wins, ahead of Moises Santaella’s 63. That kind of familiar leaderboard matters to bettors because it gives the meet a clear competitive rhythm heading into the back half of the season.

The bigger centerpiece is still ahead on Friday, August 28, when Charles Town stages its premier night with the $1 million Charles Town Classic and the $750,000 Charles Town Oaks on the same card for the format’s seventh year since 2020. Nominations for the open stakes close August 14, the Classic and Oaks card gets a special first post of 5 p.m. Eastern, and the track’s festival begins at 4 p.m. with free admission, four live bands and nearly 20 food trucks. Charles Town’s 2026 stakes slate includes 21 stakes races worth $3.8 million in total purses, excluding the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics XL card set for October 10, and since the Classic and Oaks were combined on one program in 2020, that night has produced six of the seven largest single-card handles in track history.