The status of Kentucky Downs as one of North America's elite turf meets has done little else but rise over the past decade, and that upward trajectory continued in 2021, both in the prestige of the races on its stakes calendar and that of the horses that filled the starting gate.
Kentucky Downs hosted six graded stakes races during its six-day 2021 meet, and those races served as both a destination and a launching pad for some of the season's most exciting runners.
The growth that Kentucky Downs has experienced in relation to the short duration of its meet puts the track in the same stratosphere as the game's most recognizable venues.
Since the 2017 racing season, stakes races at Kentucky Downs have received seven individual graded upgrades by the American Graded Stakes Committee, meaning a race either received graded status or was promoted to a higher grade. This trails only Belmont Park (15) and Saratoga (11) in that span of time, and leads Churchill Downs at six.
The most recent boosts to that number for Kentucky Downs came this year with the Calumet Turf Cup and the Franklin-Simpson Stakes, which were both upgraded to Grade 2 status. Only one other North American graded stakes race was upgraded to Grade 2 status in 2021: The Red Smith Stakes at Aqueduct.
While the track's unique layout and undulating surface are unlike any other major track in the country, the results following this September's meet have shown that Kentucky Downs graduates are not strictly horses for courses.
Six horses that ran at Kentucky Downs' 2021 meet won stakes races at Keeneland's fall meet a month later, taking home half of the track's turf stakes during the boutique season.
The biggest triumph among that group was In Love, the Brazilian-bred gelding who parlayed a victory in the listed TVG Stakes at Kentucky Downs into a driving 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile Stakes.
It was the second consecutive year in which owner Bonne Chance Farm and trainer Paulo Lobo used a race at Kentucky Downs to prep for an eventual victory in the biggest turf race of Keeneland's fall meet. In 2020, Bonne Chance and Lobo saw Brazil native Ivar finish third in the listed Tourist Mile Stakes (which has since been upgraded to Grade 3 status and renamed the Mint Million Mile) before upsetting what was then the G1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.
Looking ahead to the future, Tiz the Bomb proved that Kentucky Downs can serve as a launching pad for a prominent fall campaign for juveniles.
The son of Hit It a Bomb was a determined winner in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes, then stood toe-to-toe with the best youngsters on the grass with a next-start victory in the G2 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland and a runner-up effort to Modern Games in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar, where he paid out as the winner after Modern Games was declared to be running for purse money only.
On the fillies side, California Angel exited Kentucky Downs with a maiden special weight victory, and went on to take the G2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland, leading to one of the most beloved underdog stories of this year's Breeders' Cup, where she contested the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
While these horses are recent examples of the “Kentucky Downs-to-Keeneland” angle in 2021, successful runners passing through Southern Kentucky as part of a high-end campaign or career is not isolated to a particular year or racetrack angle.
From 2019 to 2021, 105 individual horses made starts at Kentucky Downs with a prior graded stakes win on their record over the past two years. That group includes 18 Grade or Group 1 winners.
Kentucky Downs grads have also proven to be winners at the highest level after racing at the track as well. From 2019 to 2021, 10 horses have gone on to win Grade 1 races at some point in their careers after racing at Kentucky Downs.
Naturally, that list of Grade 1 triumphs includes some of the most notable grass races in the country. Four months after running in the Calumet Farm Kentucky Cup Turf Stakes, Zulu Alpha found himself in the winner's circle in the 2020 G1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park. A month after finishing second in the 2020 Dueling Grounds Oaks, Harvey's Lil Goil usurped the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland.
Then, there is the mighty mare Got Stormy, who was a multiple Grade 1 winner against both males and females prior to a win in the G3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes in 2020. A year later, she beat the boys once again in the G1 Fourstardave Handicap in Saratoga.
However, the list of elite graduates from Kentucky Downs is not strictly limited to turf specialists. A trio of horses that previously raced at the track earned Grade 1 victories on the dirt in 2021, with Art Collector taking the G1 Woodward Stakes, Kimari winning the G1 Madison Stakes, and Lexitonian taking the G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap. A year earlier, Combatant added his name to that list with a win in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap.
With a diverse group of world-class horses entering and graduating from its races, and running for one of the nation's strongest purse structures, Kentucky Downs stands poised and deserving to host a Grade 1 race of its own, fitting of the high standard of quality it has established.
The post Honor Roll: The Best On Turf Went Through Kentucky Downs In 2021 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
