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Lucrative Kentucky Downs Meet Opens Sunday

FRANKLIN, Ky. – With huge purses offered during a mighty short season all run over a distinctive European-style turf course, the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs has emerged as a gem of American racing.

It's different, to be sure. Once an obscure little meet quietly contested at a track called Dueling Grounds in a small town on the border with Tennessee, much closer to Nashville than Kentucky's big cities, Louisville and Lexington, it has flourished, gotten noticed and embraced. This year it features six graded stakes, three of them with $1,000,000 purses. Two of them are part of the Sept. 11 program with five graded stakes card and are Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” races that will be broadcast live on Sept. 11 on NBC.

The season opens Sunday and continues with the second program on Labor Day.

Following an off day Tuesday, the meet rolls on with programs Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday over the undulating 1 5/16 miles course. Post time is 12:20 p.m. Central.

“All signs point to a spectacular meet,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' Vice President for Racing. “We think jockeys will be thrilled with the extensive renovation to our turf course. We know horseplayers love our full fields and large betting pools. For the final four days, Kentucky Downs will be the center of American racing, and we look forward to putting on an outstanding show.”

Horsemen know all about the purse money available, the highest daily figures in North America, and fill the entry box for the six-day season contested over eight days.

“The most difficult thing about Kentucky Downs is getting in the races,” trainer Al Stall said.

Grace Clark photo

Reacting to the demand this year, track officials have split a pair of races. When there were 31 entries for a maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies on opening day, it was divided into two full 12-horses divisions, with a total of seven on also-eligible lists, and bumped the program from 10 to 11 races. The $400,000 listed TVG Stakes on Wednesday drew 21 entries and it was split into two divisions, both with $400,000 purses.

Horseplayers relish the large fields, the lowest blended takeout rates in America and big payouts. In 2020, with no fans on track, the all-sources handle for the first six-day meeting was $59,828,441.

Track officials market Kentucky Downs as a bettors' paradise. The $2 win payoff average of $16.73 keyed strong returns in exotic wagers. According to the track stats, last year's average return for a $1 exacta was $65.32, the $1 double average payout was $75.99, the 50-cent trifecta average was $269.20, the 50-cent Pick 3 averaged $374.06, he 50-cent Pick 4 average payoff was $3,295.88. and the average payout for the 50-cent Pick 5 was $23,076.

Ken Kirchner, the Director Wagering Development at Kentucky Downs, spent many years in that role with the Breeders' Cup. He said the meet is distinct in America because its large fields are made up of horses from across the country.

“One of the highlights for handicappers and for fans is that you get this amalgamation of horses from different racing circuits around the country that you normally only get at a meet like the Breeders' Cup,” Kirchner said. “When you have more than $2 million a day in purses, not only are your stakes races this mix of New York, Kentucky, Florida, California and other horses, you have that in the maiden and allowance races across the board. It's just a fascinating exercise for the handicapper to say, 'Gosh, I can find great value every single race of this meet.'”

Average Purses on Opening Day $218,890

In the decade since the pari-mutuel electronic gaming machines, now called Historical Horse Racing (HHR), were approved to fund purses at the track, the daily average purse has skyrocketed from a nondescript $25,600 in 2011. The average purse for the 11 races on opening day is $218,890.

Earlier this year, the HHR program survived a serious challenge in the Kentucky legislature to the legality of the 3,625 machines in the state. If the HHR pari-mutuel gaming bill had not passed in the legislature, the track likely would have closed.

The three $1 million races are part of the $10 million that is available in the 16 stakes scheduled during the meet. Including that stakes money, purses total $15,259,400. The is a notable jump from the $11.69 million in purses in 2020. The meet's overnight races – maiden, allowance and claiming – are scheduled to average $876,000 a day.

On Aug. 9, the track announced an eight percent increase in the purses for non-stakes races, except the four $100,000 starter allowances that are qualifiers for the Claiming Crown at Gulfstream Park in December. Maiden special weight races for Kentucky-breds carry a purse of $135,000; first-level allowance races $145,800 and second-level allowance races $156,600. By comparison, the maiden and first-level allowance purses are about double the purses Sunday for similar conditions at Del Mar, while the maiden special weight purses at Saratoga are $100,000 and the allowance purses are $103,000 and $105,000.

Two-time Grade I winner Got Stormy (Get Stormy) is the headliner in the six-furlong $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint where she will face males again. She earned her second win over males in the GI Fourstardave on August 14. No filly or mare has won the Turf Sprint, which was first run in 1998.

Got Stormy has won 12 of 30 starts, with five seconds and three thirds, and $2,398,403 in purse earnings. In addition to her Fourstardave victories, Got Stormy has finished second four times against males in Grade I stakes in New York, California and Canada.

In the Turf Sprint she is expected to face the Bill Mott-trained Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed) in third consecutive race. Casa Creed picked up his first Grade I victory in the Jaipur on June 5 while Got Stormy was fifth. Got Stormy surprised in the Fourstardave at 12-1 and Casa Creed was third.

Donegal Racing's Arklow will try to become the first three-time winner of the $1 million Calumet Turf Cup. He won the race in 2018 and 2020 and was second in 2019. Arklow is expected to face Calumet Farm's Grade I winner Channel Cat (English Channel) and the 2019 winner Zulu Alpha (Street Cry {Ire}).

Bloom Racing's veteran Snapper Sinclair (City Zip) will race at the track for the fourth time when he starts in a division of the TVG Stakes on Wednesday. He has won two stakes at the track and last year finished second in the race now called the Mint Million Mile.

“We always look forward to-actually point our stable to-this boutique yet premium meeting at Kentucky Downs, said owner Jeff Bloom. “It's unique and charming and it doesn't hurt that that it provides incredibly lucrative purses.”

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Heavyweight Battle Between Arklow, United Headlines Pacific Classic Undercard At Del Mar

Four Graded stakes, each eligible to be a card topper on a given day, instead will provide a first-rate “undercard” for Saturday's TVG Pacific Classic Day at Del Mar.

Topping the quartet are a pair of $300,000 offerings – the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies and the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap presented by The Japan Racing Association. The former is run at nine furlongs on grass, while the latter goes at a mile and three eighths on the green for 3-year-olds and up.

Also on the agenda is another $300,000 Grade 2 special, the Del Mar Mile on the main track. The fourth stakes is the Grade 3, $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes for sophomore fillies traveling a mile on the dirt.

The Oaks has lured a field of nine including a pair of shippers: Head of Plains Partners' Fluffy Socks in from New York and Yuesheng Zhang's Soaring Sky aboard from her native Ireland.

The Del Mar Handicap will bring out 10 competitors and sets up for a clash of titans between two of the best grass route horses in the country in LNJ Foxwoods' United and Donegal Racing, Bulger and Coneway's Arklow.

Six will go hard and heavy at the classic flat mile in the Del Mar Mile and each and everyone of them is a major stakes winner. Their purse earnings got past the $5.4-million mark and they're all seasoned racehorses eligible to fire a big shot Saturday.

In the Torrey Pines, seven will face the starter, each of them eyeing their first graded stakes score. The Fast Anna filly I'm So Anna has the most bragging rights in the group currently with a pair of Cal-bred stakes on her ledger and $289,740 in the bank.

The “undercard” races will be run like this: Torrey Pines – 6th Race; Del Mar Mile – 7th Race; Del Mar Oaks – 9th Race; Del Mar Handicap – 11th Race. The TVG Pacific Classic is the day's 10th Race.

The key prep race for the Del Mar Oaks is the Grade 2, $150,000 San Clemente Stakes, run at Del Mar at a mile on the turf on July 24. The one, two, three finishers from the race — Kaleem Shah's Madone, Dubb, Gevertz or Nentwig, et al's Going Global and Slam Dunk Racing or Platts' Tetragonal – are all back to try their luck in the more demanding and more lucrative Oaks.

The likely battle royale between United and Arklow in the Del Mar Handicap will be a fitting nitecap to a delicious day of racing. The pair of turf behemoths bring plenty of bragging rights to the race: United, a 6-year-old gelding by Giant's Causeway, has won nine races and $1,675,549. He was second, beaten a head, in this race last year. Arklow also has won nine races, but his bankroll goes past his chief rival at $2,755,746. The long-winded stretch kicker shipped to Del Mar last fall and made short work of the Hollywood Turf Cup at a mile and a half. Both runners will have their regular riders – Flavien Prat on United and Florent Geroux on Arklow.

The Del Mar Handicap is a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge race that guarantees the winner all expenses paid admission into the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf, which will be run at Del Mar on Saturday, Nov. 6.

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Arklow Tries to Fend Off Brown Trio in U.N.

Easily the most accomplished runner in the field with earnings of over $2.75 million–more than his nine opponents combined–7-year-old stalwart Arklow (Arch) will try to make amends for running fourth as a heavy favorite in last year's GI United Nations S. in Saturday's renewal of the 1 3/8-mile test on the Monmouth turf.

Picking up his first stakes win as a 3-year-old in the GII American Turf S. back in 2017, the bay has since added five more black-type scores, including his lone Grade I success thus far in the 2019 GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic S. at Belmont. Adding blinkers after disappointing in last year's U.N., he has gone three-for-four since, capturing the GIII Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup S., GII Hollywood Turf Cup S. and GIII Louisville S. last out May 15 at Churchill.

A trio of Chad Brown trainees figure to offer the heftiest challenges to the favorite, with the most dangerous of the three appearing to be the speedy Tribhuvan (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}). Spurting out to a clear lead in the GII Fort Marcy S. May 1 at Belmont, he dug in gamely in the stretch to score a 1 1/2-length victory at 10-1. Again blitzing clear in the 1 1/4-mile GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S. there June 5, he held well to be second behind stablemate and turf division leader Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}).

Master Piece (Chi) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), a Group 2 winner in his native Chile, was fourth last fall when making his U.S. debut in the Joe Hirsch and got the winter off before returning with a well-graded allowance score Apr. 16 at Keeneland. He failed to make an impact, however, when sixth in the Manhattan last out.

Rounding out the Brown contingent is Peter Brant's Serve the King (GB) (Kingman {GB}), runner-up in last fall's GIII Monmouth S. and fourth in the same event off the bench June 5.

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‘Remarkable’ Arklow Headlines Saturday’s United Nations

If ever the timeworn cliché about not getting older but getting better could be applied to a horse, it would be Arklow.

The son of Arch is now seven and has earned $2,750,746 in a 32-race career that dates to 2016. Even more impressive is that he has won a graded stakes race in each of the past five years.

He became a Grade 1 winner in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in the fall of 2019 and now, almost two years later, will be among the favorites at Monmouth Park for Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 United Nations Stakes, the supporting feature on the 14-race TVG.com Haskell Stakes card.

The United Nations will be contested at a mile and three-eighths on the grass, where Arklow excels.

“Winning a graded stakes five years in a row is a remarkable thing,” said Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, who saddled Arklow before his most recent victory in the Grade 3 Louisville Stakes at Churchill Downs in his only 2021 start. “I think it's a pedigree thing. He's an Arch. He felt like a horse that would always improve with age.”

Owned by Donegal Racing, Joseph Bulger and the estate of Peter Coneway, Arklow is back for a second straight crack at the United Nations. Sent off as the 13-10 favorite in 2020, he finished fourth. Thereafter, Cox added blinkers and Arklow has posed for winner's circle photos in three of his next four contests, all graded stakes, including the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar in the final race of his 2020 campaign.

“He's really moved forward since we've added the blinkers,” Cox said. “His only defeat with them came in the Breeders' Cup. The blinkers seem to have picked his head up and are keeping him in the race mentally. I've always said I hate to put blinkers on a horse that's made a couple of million dollars, but once we did it he turned the corner.”

The horse's only loss in those four races after the equipment change was a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf in November.

“We give him time off,” said Cox when addressing Arklow's longevity and successes. “It had been somewhat of a long year and then he got a break. I think that plays a big role. The owners of this horse are always willing to give him time. Once he's done so much, he gets a little vacation. He's rewarded them in staying consistent.”

Another astounding thing about Arklow is that he's stayed as sound and as willing as a young colt.

“We see all the signs that he still loves to do it,” said assistant trainer Blake Cox, who is overseeing the contingent of five horses, including Mandoloun, which the stable will run in all five graded stakes on Saturday's Haskell Stakes card. “He does so much after the wire and it's the way he does it. He's a mile-and-a-half horse and he's a grinder. He picks up every pole and you can't even pull him up. It's crazy. He tells you when he's ready.”

Arklow put in the last of his serious work for the United Nations at Monmouth Park on July 11 with a four-furlong breeze and has been training forwardly since. On Thursday, he was out on the track for a routine morning gallop, went to the gate and backed out, and then visited the paddock for a lesson.

“You don't see horses like this one anymore,” said Blake Cox, Brad Cox's son and assistant. “He handles everything thrown his way. He's a tough horse, no question. I think he likes a little give in the ground. I really do. It can rain as much as it wants or not, and he'll be fine.”

The horse's connections will be in attendance on Saturday, rooting for their iron horse.

“Winning the United Nations would mean a lot for everybody. He's already got a Grade 1 and we'd like to get another one for him,” said Blake Cox. “If everything goes right, I really think he can get the job done.”

It will be a busy and potentially-lucrative day for the Cox team on Saturday. In addition to Arlow in the Grade 1 United Nations and Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun in the Grade 1 Haskell, they're sending out Grade 1 winner and Juddmonte Farms homebred Juliette Foxtrot in the Grade 3 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes, Grade 2 winner Vault in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher Stakes, and Grade 3 winner Night Ops in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup Stakes.

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