Finger Lakes opens 65th season April 27 with eight races

Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack starts its 65th season Monday with an eight-race card at 12:55 p.m., and the opener already has the feel of a live test for the people who shape the meet. Race seven, the $26,500 Welcome Back Racing Fans at 4 1/2 furlongs, should draw the most attention, with Not For Hire expected to be a leading contender as he makes his dirt debut for trainer Jonathan Buckley, owner Windylea Farm and rider Kevin Navarro.

That combination carries real weight for the local circuit. Buckley finished second in the 2025 trainer standings at Finger Lakes with 63 victories, while Navarro was fifth among the track’s jockeys last year. A strong run from Not For Hire would give both a quick early marker in a meet that often settles into clear patterns fast, especially at a track where horsemen come back looking to establish stalls, class levels and repeatable form before the summer stakes schedule thickens.

Jacqueline Davis is part of the return story, too. She has three mounts on opening day, including Skytown for trainer Ronald Breed Jr., after injuries kept her sidelined last June and she returned to riding this winter at Charles Town in West Virginia. For horsemen and bettors, that matters as much as any single race: a familiar rider re-entering the colony can change how races are written, how mounts are handled and how the wagering public reads the card.

The meet also arrives with business momentum behind it. Finger Lakes said it will again offer 91 race days in 2026, beginning with Monday-Tuesday cards for the first two weeks before moving to a Monday-through-Wednesday schedule through Nov. 25. Todd Haight said the track is keeping the wagering menu the same after total wagering grew by $7.1 million in 2025, and he pointed to the second Pick 5 added last year with a mandatory daily payout, which expanded by more than 150 percent. In a year when downstate New York racing shifts around Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont at the Big A and Belmont Park’s scheduled return on Sept. 18, Finger Lakes remains the steady upstate fixture.

The track’s history gives the opener added weight. Finger Lakes says it began racing on May 23, 1962, when Pure Village won the inaugural race, and it still describes itself as a 450-acre property with more than 1,100 video gaming machines and live Thoroughbred racing from mid-April to late November. A successful season will mean more than a full card on opening day. It will mean packed fields, a stronger wager handle, and another year in which western New York’s main Thoroughbred venue keeps its place in the state’s racing calendar.