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Ellis Director of Racing Jeff Hall Dies

Jeff Hall–Ellis Park's popular director of racing operations who began his more than 50 years at the track by parking cars as a teenager–passed away Saturday morning at University of Louisville Health-Jewish Hospital. He was 75. A lifelong resident of Henderson, Hall was known for his strong local connections in the Tri-State region, his deep love of horse racing and his knowledge of how the different components of a track worked and were interrelated.

“When we lost Jeff Hall, we lost on both sides of the river,” said Ellis Park-based trainer John Hancock, who had a particularly close association with Hall, including with his work as a Kentucky HBPA board member. “Jeff Hall was a horsemen's track manager. His door was open at all times. He would listen at all times, and he would do his best to get done what needed to get done. He always had a smile. He was always there when we needed him.”

“I started nearly every day at Ellis by getting myself a cup of coffee and spending my first 10-20 minutes with Jeff,” said Ellis Entertainment LLC General Manager Jeff Inman. “Just because his optimism and energy gave me a boost to start the day off. He loved this place and he loved the sport; but most of all, he loved the people here. I appreciated his knowledge, but it is his friendship that will always stay with me.”

Hall graduated from Henderson (City) High School and Western Kentucky University. He worked for years at Black Equipment selling heavy equipment and at one stage worked in the oil business. Through most that time, Hall also worked summers at Ellis Park, starting out as a mutuel clerk and advancing to full-time work as mutuels director to general manager to concentrating on the racing component as director of racing operations. Hall's career in racing spanned six ownership groups at Ellis Park, dating back to when Lester Yeager ran the track for the heirs of James C. Ellis.

Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Raini Smith Hall; two daughters, Kristie Hall Watson and her husband, Mark, of Lexington, Ky., and Ashley Harper Smith of Nashville, Tenn.; brother Tim Hall and his wife, Susan, of Sturgis, Ky.; and granddaughters Charlie Watson and Margot Watson.

A celebration of life will be held from noon until 2 p.m. Central Saturday, June 11, at Rudy-Rowland Funeral Home, 604 Center Street, Henderson, Ky., 42420.

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‘Memorable Meet’: Ellis Park Readies For Full Capacity Summer

Ellis Park's 2021 racing season is only five weeks away, with the trickle of horse vans and trailers bringing in the racing stock soon to become a steady stream.

Western Kentucky's annual summer race meet opens Sunday June 27 and closes Saturday Sept. 4, with racing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays along with Thursday July 1. Ellis Park will operate at full capacity following last year's pandemic-mandated health measures that prevented having general admission and limited reserved seating.

Horses were allowed entry into the Ellis backstretch earlier this month, with daily training commencing May 13.

Stall space is especially coveted this year at Ellis Park. That's because Churchill Downs, which is replacing its turf course, will be closed for its normal summer off-season stabling and training. The Louisville market is a significant source of horses for Ellis Park's race meet, with many Churchill-based horsemen making day trips to Henderson to race during the summer. However, area training centers and Churchill's satellite Trackside training facility will continue as major suppliers of horses for the Ellis racing programs.

Ellis Park can accommodate about 750 horses for stabling, with other stalls reserved for horses shipping in on race day.

“It's a good but challenging problem to have, with demand greatly exceeding supply,” said Jeff Hall, Ellis Park's director of racing operations. “We are agonizing that we can't accommodate everybody. We do know this: That with our record purses and the outfits that will be on the grounds, we're going to have a memorable meet. That's especially true now that we'll be able to be at full capacity for fans after last year's COVID restrictions.”

Among the outfits stabling at Ellis Park for the first time are a pair of Hall of Famers: four-time Kentucky Derby winner D. Wayne Lukas and Bill Mott. While Mott will remain in New York, with his Ellis operation overseen by longtime Kentucky assistant Kenny McCarthy, the legendary Lukas, 85, will be out in the mornings astride his pony at Ellis Park this summer rather than going to Saratoga.

Trainer and lifelong Henderson resident John Hancock said 2021 will be like a trip down memory lane. Hancock grew up on the Ellis Park backstretch with fellow trainers Dale Romans and siblings Greg and Vickie Foley, whose dads were fixtures at the track. Those trainers will have horses stabled in Henderson for the first time in years.

“You've got the Foleys coming back, Hall of Fame trainers, people who have run horses but not been stabled here. It's great for the community,” Hancock said. “The farmers are going to be selling the hay and the straw. The restaurants and motels will be lively. This meet, the new faces that are coming and old faces coming back, it's going to put a lot of money into Henderson County and Vanderburgh County. It's going to be great for everybody.”

For Evansville's Bonnie Pittman, embarking on her sixth season as a trainer at Ellis Park, the opening of the barn area is a welcome annual rite after commuting 1 1/2 hours each way to a southern Illinois training facility for the winter.

“We come in here and the track is ready to go for us,” she said. “It's springtime and everything is popping. Everything will start getting busier in a couple of weeks. We're going to have lots of horses here this summer because of Churchill's closing. The barns will be packed. It will be a wild summer for us. There will be lots of things to do and lots of jobs. A lot of people will rent rooms around here and we all eat out about every day. It will be busy for everybody.”

Those messages of employment and dollars being spent are near and dear to Brad Schneider. The Henderson County Judge Executive this past winter testified before a Kentucky legislative committee on the importance of Ellis Park to his community and the need to preserve Kentucky's racetracks by passing legislation to protect Historical Horse Racing in the state.

Beyond being a civic leader and government official, Schneider just loves going to the races at Ellis Park.

“As a fan of Ellis Park and an admirer of the management team and staff at the track, I am so thankful they'll get to host a live meet without restrictions,” he said. “For our region, there is nothing more thrilling on summer weekends than to hear the call to the post for a race at Ellis. I can't wait to get a plate of Western Kentucky barbecue, a cold beverage and a program, place a bet or two, and watch the horses run!”

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Record Purses for Ellis Park

Average daily purses are expected to top $350,000 at this summer's Ellis Park meeting, highest in the track's 99-year history, according to racing secretary Dan Bork. Bork said purses for maiden races will likely top the record $50,000 achieved in 2019 before the pandemic forced cutbacks last year in the wake of a three-month shutdown. Those numbers include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements.

Ellis Park released its 2021 stakes schedule Sunday. The schedule features 14 stakes races and the Henderson track has expanded its Kentucky Downs Preview Day to an entire weekend, Aug. 7-8. The Preview races–all on grass and designed as stepping stones to Kentucky Downs' lucrative stakes in early September–now total seven with the addition of the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at a mile and a sixteenth and the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby for 3-year-olds at a mile and an eighth.

All the Kentucky Downs Preview stakes carry a purse of $100,000 with the exception of the $125,000 Preview Turf Cup, a 1 1/4-mile prelude to Kentucky Downs' $1-million GII Calumet Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles. The winner of each of the Preview Weekend stakes receives an automatic spot with the entry fees waived in the corresponding stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Five dirt stakes take center stage Aug. 15, headlined by the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby. Also on the Aug. 15 card: the Groupie Doll S. for fillies and mares, the Ellis Park Juvenile and Ellis Park Debutante–each increased to $125,000–along with the $100,000 Audubon Oaks at seven-eighths of a mile.

“We've been delighted with how horseplayers and fans have responded to our stakes being super-sized into festival-type days,” said Jeff Hall, Ellis Park's director of racing operations. “Now we're going from two to three days that will provide some of the best racing programs outside of Saratoga and Del Mar. And I dare say on the two stakes-packed Sundays that we could be right up there with both coasts. Since creating Kentucky Downs Preview Day in 2018, the program has just blossomed and succeeded in its mission of providing launching pads to Kentucky Downs. We're thrilled to add two more stakes, filling a void in the 3-year-old grass divisions and expanding the series to a weekend.”

Ellis Park's purse increases are attributable to its relationship with Kentucky Downs, which through an arrangement with the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association will transfer $4.2 million into Ellis' purse account this year. That money will be split equally between unrestricted association purses and KTDF funds, for which the transfer requires approval of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and its KTDF advisory committee.

“The three-way deal among Kentucky Downs, Ellis Park and the Kentucky HBPA has proven a win-win-win for all parties and the state and really helps strengthen the entire circuit,” said Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky HBPA. “Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend is so fitting because it also casts the limelight on Kentucky Downs several weeks before they open. Ellis adding two 3-year-old turf stakes will keep those horses in Kentucky throughout the summer and heading into Kentucky Downs.”

The Ellis Park meeting runs from June 27 through Sept. 4.

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Nine New Members Added To Kentucky Equine Education Project Board

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP), Kentucky's equine economic advocate, announced additions to its Board of Directors.

Nine new individuals were added to the KEEP Board of Directors: Shannon Cobb, Michelle Fischer, Vince Gabbert, Jeff Hall, Katie LaMonica, Jamie MacLeod, James Miller, Bret Shultz and Donnie Snellings.

Cobb is the COO/CFO of The Red Mile. Fischer is the President of Darting Star, LLC. Gabbert is Vice President and COO of Keeneland. Hall is the General Manger of Ellis Park. LaMonica is the Manager of Marketing at Darley Stud Management. MacLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center. Miller is co-owner of Saddlebred farm Hillcroft. Shultz is Director of Racing at Standardbred racing facility Oak Grove. Snellings is the Sales and Yearling Manager at Denali Stud and is the current President of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club.

New officers for the KEEP Board of Directors will be elected at the Board's January meeting.

Elisabeth Jensen, KEEP's executive vice president who oversees the daily operations of the organization, commented, “Given the hurdles the horse industry faces in the coming year, KEEP may be more necessary now than at any other point in its history. The Kentucky Supreme Court's ruling that jeopardizes historical horse racing and its contribution to the success of Kentucky's horse industry presents an immense challenge as we will work to convince the legislature to address the issue. The addition of these board members and the work they have already engaged in on behalf of KEEP and the horse industry is a critical part of the battle ahead.”

The chairman of KEEP's Board of Directors, Doug Cauthen, added, “KEEP has always maintained a Board of Directors that truly represents a cross-section of Kentucky's all breed horse industry and provides all stakeholders with a seat at the table. These new board members further that diverse industry representation and will strengthen KEEP as it faces new challenges and fights to preserve historical horse racing.”

In December, the KEEP Board of Directors will host an industry-wide webinar to discuss the year ahead for KEEP, the advocacy issues the organization will take on, and the strategies and approaches the organization will undertake to emerge successful. More details will be included in a future announcement.

The Kentucky Equine Education Project is a not-for-profit grassroots organization created in 2004 to preserve, promote and protect Kentucky's signature multi-breed horse industry. KEEP is committed to ensuring Kentucky remains the horse capital of the world, including educating Kentuckians and elected officials of the importance of the horse industry to the state. KEEP was the driving force in the establishment of the Kentucky Breeders Incentive Fund, which has paid out more than $177 million to Kentucky breeders since its inception in 2006, and pari-mutuel wagering on historical horse racing, which has been responsible for more than $50 million to purses and more than $24 million to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

KEEP works to strengthen the horse economy in Kentucky through our statewide network of citizen advocates. To learn more about how you can become a member or support our work, please visit www.horseswork.com.

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