Jockey Jaime Lopez celebrates after winning the thoroughbred allowance race in track record time aboard Roman Rush at Grants Pass Down Tuesday.

A rich tradition in Grants Pass just got richer with Grants Pass Downs starting off with high-stakes and competitive racing in the first two days of the upcoming summer horse racing season.

Starting next Saturday on June 15, the Josephine County Fairgrounds will host the opening day of the seven-day season, featuring trials of the Adequan Derby Challenge with the finals coming on June 30 with an added purse of $19,000.

Day 2 of the opening weekend will also include the trials of the Firecracker Futurity, with the finals of that race continuing on July 4 and including an added purse of $30,000.

With the opening weekend being a precursor to the short summer season held at Grants Pass Downs, Tag Wotherspoon, the director of marketing and communications at Grants Pass Downs, sees the first two meets as a great way to kick off an exciting three weeks of racing.

“We have a lot of big races, too, coming up as far as thoroughbreds,” said Wotherspoon. “This is definitely a very exciting time of the year as we get closer to the start of our season and everything is now coming together and everybody’s very happy and pleased. There’s a lot of excitement in the air there when it comes to our summer races.”

In both the Adequan Derby and Firecracker Futurity, only the top-10 finishers will move onto the finals. According to Wotherspoon, the Adequan Derby should have around 15-20 entrants with the more popular Firecracker Futurity fielding around with 40-50 horses.

And depending on how many entries are in the Futurity, the purse on Independence Day will surely be the richest of them all.

“That is our richest race of the season and the meet on the Fourth of July,” Wotherspoon said about summer meet finale. “Oftentimes depending on how many horses actually enter and with the purse, it could end up being anywhere from $60-90,000.”

“We have people that come from throughout the West Coast for the great competition every year,” he added. “People come from Washington, California, Arizona, Idaho and Nevada come to Grants Pass to bring their horse into Grants Pass Downs to compete, its a win-win situation for the community.”

Dates of competition will also be on June 22, 23 and 29, every race on the schedule will also have special promotions and contests for spectators with the events being held by the Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association.

The races on June 16 will also fall on Father’s Day, with the promotion following the theme of the holiday having free admission to all fathers. Some of the other promotions will include Ladies Hat Day, Military Appreciation Day, Don Jackson Day and Senior Citizen day.

“We are trying to have something for everyone and we take a minor league baseball approach with all our promotions,” said Wotherspoon. “The community support is great, the hospitality is fantastic and there’s a whole lot of history and tradition around Grants Pass Downs.”

Post time for all seven race days will be at 1 p.m. with the regular admission — depending on the promotions — being $4 and children 12 years and younger are free with the gates opening at 11:30 a.m. Onsite parking will also be free.

For more information, visit racingontherogue.org.