NEWS

Industry News

Most Popular Stories

Most E-mailed Stories

Kentucky Cup races on the chopping block

Posted: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 4:36 PM

Kentucky probably will lose one of its traditional top racing dates this year as Turfway Park plans to drop the three remaining Kentucky Cup Day of Champions races.

The Northern Kentucky track has asked the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to approve a request to cut four Wednesday cards and all but one stakes race from its 2010 fall meet, track president Bob Elliston said Wednesday. The cuts would include the three remaining Kentucky Cup races.

The request will be considered at the commission’s next meeting, set for July 20. With tracks facing tough times, the commission has granted similar reduction requests at Turfway and other Kentucky tracks.

If approved, Turfway’s live meet will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule from September 9 through October 3, with 16 dates instead of 20. With the exception of the $100,000 Turfway Park Fall Championship Stakes (G3), a contracted Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series race, the stakes schedule will be eliminated. 

The Kentucky Cup day already had been reduced to three stakes races but now the track will request the elimination of the Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes (G2), Kentucky Cup Distaff Stakes (G3), and Kentucky Cup Sprint Stakes (G3). The three races offered a combined $400,000 in purses in 2009. Last year, the track dropped the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Stakes (G3) and Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes.
 
Since its start in 1994, the Kentucky Cup races have featured seven horses who have gone on to win Breeders’ Cup World Championships races including: Boston Harbor, 1996 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1); Reraise, '98 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1); Cat Thief, '99 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1); Spain, Breeders’ Cup 2000 Distaff (G1); Vindication, '02 Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile; Cajun Beat, '03 Breeders’ Cup Sprint; and Furthest Land, '09 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

“We are especially disappointed to have to drop the Kentucky Cup Day of Champions,” Elliston said. “Great horses came from all over for those races, and they’ve had a significant impact on the Breeders’ Cup. If the state legislature allows us to level the playing field with surrounding states that enhance their purses with gaming revenue, the Kentucky Cup would be high on the list of races we would restore.”

Elliston said the track had to make some tough decisions.

“We were forced to make deep cuts to at least stay even with last fall’s daily purse averages and support our local horsemen as best we can,” Elliston said. “We have to do whatever we can to maximize our field size, which means fewer race dates.

“And we are not alone. Churchill Downs ran four days instead of five, except for Derby week, during their spring meet, and their average field size fell below eight. Keeneland cut more than $1-million from its fall meet purse structure and dropped two graded stakes. Except for Labor Day weekend, Ellis Park is racing only three days a week. Meanwhile, Indiana Downs just increased their purses by 30% and last month, on an ordinary Wednesday card, set a track wagering record.”

Additionally, Turfway has asked to move its fall meet post time on Thursday and Friday to 5:30 p.m. EDT. Post time those days had been 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday post time will remain at 1:10 p.m.