Fair Grounds, which had its 2019 – 2020 race meet curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic after the Louisiana Derby card on March 21, will remain open indefinitely for stabling and training, director of racing, Jason Boulet, said Tuesday morning.

“We just announced we’re going to train five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday with Mondays off, published works on Saturday,” Boulet said.

The news comes directly after Churchill Downs announced Tuesday it’s stabling area won’t be open until at least April 28. Churchill Downs Inc. owns both Churchill and Fair Grounds as well as Arlington in suburban Chicago, which has delayed indefinitely the opening of it’s stabling area as well as the start of its 2020 racing season, which had been set to begin May 1.

A majority of Fair Grounds-based horses that don’t stay year-round in Louisiana would normally have headed north to Kentucky and Chicago following the end of the New Orleans racing season. Those horses for the most part now have no sure place to go were Fair Grounds to close. The track late last month had released a training schedule running through April 15 and now will stay open as long as required.

“It’s a team effort with Churchill,” Boulet said. “As long as we need to have horses here, we’ll have them here. They’ve told me to just keep rolling and do what we’re doing.”