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Kentucky Downs’ Mint Millions Worth $2 Million in 2023

The GIII Mint Millions S. will become the first $2-million race ever run at Kentucky Downs, as well as the richest American turf race outside of the Breeders' Cup, when it is run Sept. 2 at the Franklin track. The one-mile Mint Millions offers a base purse of $1 million, with another $1 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF). Last year, the base was $600,000, with a $400,000 supplement from the KTDF.

The Millions was one of 17 stakes–including nine graded events–that was unveiled Wednesday for the track's upcoming boutique seven-day all-turf meet. With seven races worth at least $1 million, the stakes schedule offers $7.6 million available for all horses and another $6.4 million in KTDF enhancements earmarked for those horses foaled in Kentucky and sired by a Kentucky stallion.

The six other graded stakes offering $1 million in available purses are the GII Kentucky Turf Cup, the GII Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint, GII Franklin-Simpson S., the GII Mint Ladies Sprint, GIII Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf and the GIII Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon. Those stakes, all carded for a blockbuster Sept. 9 program, will have base purses of $600,000 with another $400,000 available for KTDF-eligible horses, which reflect the vast majority of horses racing at Kentucky Downs.

“We are laser-focused on securing Grade I races for Kentucky Downs. Our 2023 stakes schedule is another step toward that mission,” said Kentucky Downs Vice President for Racing Ted Nicholson. “Our KTDF money allows us to run North America's richest two weeks of racing, including the potential to run more stakes worth at least $1 million during a meet than any U.S. track outside a Breeders' Cup host. But regardless of where horses are born, our base purses guarantee everyone runs for some of the largest purses on the planet.”

Ron Winchell, who with Marc Falcone are Kentucky Downs' co-managing partners, added, “We want the Mint Millions to be the pre-eminent launching pad to the Breeders' Cup Mile. Turf milers are among the biggest stars in Europe, and we're giving them a million more reasons to come to Kentucky Downs.”

Three other Kentucky Downs' stakes–the Sept. 2 GIII Music City S., the Sept. 2 Gun Runner S. and the Sept. 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks had their purses substantially boosted to $750,000, split evenly between the base purse and KTDF enhancements. The GIII Dueling Grounds Derby, also on Sept. 3, was raised to $750,000 last year.

The remaining six stakes will be worth $500,000, half from the base purse and the rest from the KTDF.

The overall purse structure for the meet is scheduled for $22.82 million–a track record for the 12th straight year since the advent of historical horse racing.

Kentucky Downs maiden races will be worth $150,000 for Kentucky-bred horses. And the track will once again offer a pair of $250,000 allowance races–one for 2-year-old fillies and one for 2-year-old colts–restricted to horses that went through the sales ring at Keeneland's 2022 September Yearling sale. Those 6 1/2-furlong races will be held opening day, Aug. 31, with all runners competing for the entire pot.

Kentucky Downs will run Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10 and 13.

The entire 2023 Kentucky Downs stakes schedule is:

All stakes are on turf and include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements

Thursday Aug. 31 — $500,000 Tapit Stakes, 3 year olds & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.

Saturday Sept. 2 — $750,000 Music City (G3), 3-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs; $750,000 Gun Runner, 3-year-olds, one mile; $2 million Mint Millions (G3), 3 year olds & up, one mile.

Sunday Sept. 3 — $750,000 Dueling Grounds Derby (G3), 3-year-olds, 1 5/16 miles; $750,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 5/16 miles.

Thursday Sept. 7 — $500,000 One Dreamer, fillies and mares 3 years old & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.

Saturday Sept. 9 — $1 million Franklin-Simpson (G2), 3-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint (G2), 3-year-olds & up, six furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G2), 3-year-olds & up, 1 1/2 miles; $1 million The Mint Ladies Sprint (G2), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, one mile; $1 million Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 1 5/16 miles.

Sunday, Sept. 10 — $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile, 2-year-olds, mile; $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies, 2-year-old fillies, mile.

Wednesday Sept. 13 — $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint, 2-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $500,000 Untapable Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs.

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MSW Projections: Ellis $70,000, Kentucky Downs $150,000

Purse levels for maiden special weight (MSW) races on the Kentucky circuit have been projected for the summer meets at Ellis Park ($70,000 through 24 dates in July and August) and Kentucky Downs ($150,000 for seven days in September).

Those figures were disclosed by representatives of those tracks Wednesday during a meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee.

The projected Ellis MSW purses will be a boost from the $60,000 offered in 2022.

Kentucky Downs will remain year-over-year level at $150,000 after last bumping up MSW purses from $135,000 in 2021.

Ellis will be running its first meet under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), which last September announced a $79-million buy of Kentucky's only Thoroughbred venue in the western part of the state.

Ellis executives said changes for 2023 will include an attempt to run nine races daily instead of eight.

The Ellis racing secretary, Dan Bork, said the stakes program will also be importing the GIII Pucker Up S., which had formerly been run at Arlington International Racecourse until CDI shuttered the historic Chicago track in 2021.

In 2022, the Pucker Up was initially scheduled to be run as part of the GI Arlington Million undercard at Churchill Downs. But the nine-furlong turf race for 3-year-old fillies was one of two races scrapped in an effort to preserve Churchill's slow-to-grow, new $10-million grass course.

Bork said moving the race to Ellis will come with a purse increase to $300,000 from last year's scheduled $200,000, and will place that stakes as the centerpiece of a two-day, seven-stakes turf weekend Aug. 5-6. The remaining six grass stakes will all have purses of at least $200,000.

As far as facility improvements, Jeff Inman, the Ellis general manager, said there is a lot of work going into the “water and drainage situation” that has long been a problem at Ellis.

“Churchill is taking some major steps to come up with a whole solution as opposed to the piecemeal ones that we have done in the past,” Inman said.

Inman also noted that “continued construction work on the grandstands” will start Apr. 6. “We are currently working on our entryway canopy to make a more pleasing entrance.”

CDI will be rebranding the Ellis simulcast presentation to standardize the signal with other tracks in its corporate portfolio, including transferring on-air talent from Churchill Downs to Ellis.

A new video board will be installed in the Ellis infield.

Kentucky Downs will race seven days again in 2023 after going from six dates to seven in 2022.

Ted Nicholson, the senior vice president and general manager at Kentucky Downs, said to expect the standard 10 or 11 races on weekdays, and 11 or 12 on weekends.

Nicholson said the hotel on the property will finally be open for the first time during a race meet.

Nicholson said Kentucky Downs “had tornado damage on a couple barns, so we're in the process of shoring those up.”

A new horsemen's “perch” is being built for 2023. Nicholson said it will be located between the paddock and the stewards' stand, with the weighing-in scale for riders being moved elsewhere to fit in the two-story, 25-by-25-foot viewing stand.

“It will allow for horsemen to go up and watch the race and get a better bird's-eye view of it than what they've been getting,” Nicholson said.

The KTDF advisory committee approved the recommendation of allotment requests that the Ellis and Kentucky Downs purse estimates were based on, but the full Kentucky Horse Racing Commission still has to vote on final approval of the funding.

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Stakes Winner Get Western Joins Old Friends

Stakes winner Get Western (Get Stormy–Marquetessa, by Marquetry) has joined the retirees at Old Friends in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 7-year-old gelding won the 2019 Old Friends S. at Kentucky Downs for trainer Charles LoPresti and owner Ward C. Pitfield. The “Win for Life” contest guaranteed him placement at Old Friends upon retiring from racing.

Eventually transferred to J. Reeve McGaughey's barn, Get Western's last race was at Turfway Park in February of 2022.

He was transferred to the Secretariat Center, located at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, for retraining and rehoming, but soundness issues prevented his embarking on a second career.

He finished his racing career with four wins from 21 starts and career earnings of $289,641.

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Record $80M Bet on ’22 Kentucky Downs Meet

The FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs concluded Wednesday with record wagering topping $80 million for the seven-day run. Purses again set a record, reaching almost $18 million paid out to horse owners.

With $12,896,355 bet on Wednesday's closing card, total wagering on the meet reached $80,175,928, clipping Kentucky Downs' previous record of $74,088,532 over six days last year for an increase of 8 percent. A record $21,065,982 was bet on Saturday Sept. 10. The average field size was 10.61 horses, the highest since 2019.

The record wagering comes in spite of adverse weather on both weekends during the meet that began Thursday Sept. 1. The last four races on Saturday Sept. 3 had to be rescheduled. Both Sundays were significantly impacted, with the entire Sept. 4 card transferred to Monday Sept. 5 and the last nine of 11 races carded for Sept. 11 moved to Tuesday, Sept. 13.

“It was a fantastic meet, with world-class racing despite the challenges,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' Vice President for Racing. “Every weekend we ran, we were meteorologists. Losing both Sundays and having to shift one card to a Tuesday is not ideal. It was a testament to track superintendent Butch Lehr and the track crew how well the course held together. For us, along with our horsemen and horseplayers, to persevere and get to $80 million is huge.”

Participation was broad-based: An even 100 trainers ran at least one horse, with Mike Maker leading the way with 66 starts – more than double No. 2 Steve Asmussen's 32. Ninety-eight unique owners or ownership groups participated, highlighted by Three Diamonds Farms' 21 starters. Sixty-two jockeys rode at least one race, led by meet-leader Tyler Gaffalione (nine wins) riding 66 of 73 races.

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