Building incentives to keep trainers and horses racing in the Bluegrass state was the centerpiece of conversation during the April 5 Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's Thoroughbred Development Fund Advisory Committee meeting.
Among topics discussed were Turfway Park's recently concluded winter/spring meet, the transfer of Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund resources toward Ellis Park's upcoming summer racing season, improvements at Kentucky Downs and Ellis—along with allotment of KTDF funds towards those two tracks.
Chip Bach, general manager at Turfway, said he is pleased with the figures at the end of the meet including a 62% increase in handle year over year for a $56 million increase from 2022—a total of $145 million for this year. He says that the gain in handle can be attributed to a larger field size which increased from 9.1 to 9.78.
"Of all these numbers, I think our field size is the one that's giving us all the attention for everything else," Bach said. "We are going to be stingy in protecting (and) making sure we are associated with great field sizes going forward. ... Ever since Churchill had purchased us, (our) field size has been pretty strong.
"We still were at nine horses per start in 2022, and obviously we've given significantly more purse money away but I think the fact that we've invested in the racing surface, the racetrack itself, I think we have a pretty good customer experience now. But definitely the purses are bringing really top quality horses over; the races have all been pretty contentious. It's not like we've seen a one-to-one win every race, every day. We've got a whole bunch of new trainers that had left Turfway a while ago who are coming back."
The conclusion of Turfway makes way for other spring and summer racing in Kentucky including Keeneland which begins April 7, Ellis Park's summer meet which starts July 7, and Kentucky Downs' week-long meet which is slotted to kick off Aug. 31. Both Kentucky Downs and Churchill Downs Inc.'s harness racing track Oak Grove requested to transfer KTDF funding to Ellis which includes $1.75 million and $1.1 million respectively.
Of the KTDF funds, Ellis plans to use $3.7-$4.4 million during their meet which will be approximately 23% of the overall purses. Their maiden special weight races will be worth $70,000, a $10,000 increase from 2022. They will look to card nine races per day opposed to eight for the 2023 meet, which will be the first under CDI after the company purchased the track for $79 million last year.
As part of the Kentucky Downs preview weekend, which will run seven stakes races Aug. 5-6, the Pucker Up Stakes (G3T), previously intended to be part of the Churchill Downs' Arlington Million (G1T) undercard, will be run at Ellis with a purse increase to $300,000 from $200,000 in 2022. It was scratched from the card last year in order to preserve Churchill's turf course.
Improvements are also moving forward at the Henderson, Ky. oval according to Ellis's general manager Jeff Inman who says that several aspects of the facility are receiving well-needed adjustments.
"We have a lot of work going on here. ... We're seeing a lot of engineers on the backside. We will start continued construction work on the grandstands which will start tomorrow," Inman said. "We are currently working on our entryway canopy to offer a more pleasing entrance. A lot of work is going into the water and drainage situation at Ellis Park. Churchill is taking some major steps to come up with a whole solution as opposed to the piecemeal ones we've seen in the past."
Work is also being done across the state in Franklin, Ky. at Kentucky Downs where a new hotel is close to being completed, and repair of tornado damage is also underway according to vice president Ted Nicholson.
"The hotel (115 rooms) will be done by the time we race which will be nice. ... We had tornado damage on a couple barns so we're in the process of shoring those up. We're (also) going to build a (two-story) horsemen's perch," Nicholson said. "It will allow horsemen to go up and watch the race to get a better bird's eye view of it than what they've been getting. It'll be in between the paddock and stewards stand. ... We're going to be doing a lot more asphalting to keep dust down."
Kentucky Downs plans to use $10.1-$11.1 million of KTDF funds for their September meet which includes $150,000 maiden special weight races—in line with last year's meet. They also plan to card 10-11 races per day during the week and 11-12 for the weekend which is also traditional for the track.
Motions to accept both Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs' allotment of KTDF funds were approved but are subject to KHRC approval.
