When Hollywood Gaming opened in Austintown, the slots were first and the horse racing started two months later. The bet was the Valley would like horse racing, and it has.

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Are you ready for horse racing season? Rhapsody is. The support horse is behind the scenes for the races, which began Saturday.

“These horses are very intelligent animals. They walk around. They know when they want to race. You watch them coming back to that winner’s circle. You can see the pride in their eyes. They love it,” said Candy Wetzel, assistant director of racing.