kentucky downs | Horse Racing Free Tips

Factor This Digs In To Win Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup

The pressure never let up on Factor This as he made his 1 ¼-mile trek around Ellis Park on Sunday. It was an expected byproduct that comes with the burden of heavy favoritism, but it still made trainer Brad Cox's nerves fray slightly as he watched it unfold from afar.

While being the target comes with the territory when one brings a streak of graded victories to the table, so too does having the mettle to turn back any attempts to thwart that momentum. So after sending one threat after another on its way during the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup Stakes, Factor This dug into the depths of his class in the final strides to keep the late-charging Hierarchy at bay by a half-length and notch his fourth straight triumph.

The Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Stakes was one of five turf stakes on Sunday's card comprising Kentucky Downs Preview Day at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park. A total of $4,118,000 was wagered on the 10-race card, one of the highest in track history.

Having earned consecutive wins in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Stakes, Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic, and Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes this season, Factor This came into the Preview Turf Stakes with the biggest reputation in the 11-horse field and, by extension, the most to lose. His front-running style is no secret so when the 4-5 favorite bounded away under jockey Shaun Bridgmohan, he was met first by longshot Phantom Currency, who kept his head in front through opening fractions of :24.99 and :50.25.

“There was obviously another horse up there on the pace. That's a tough post (10) to win from, the way they angle the gate at the quarter pole,” said Cox, who watched the race from his base in Louisville. “He had to overcome some things today. Laid in the two path around both turns. But overall, I was super pleased with the horse. He always shows up.”

Factor This put his neck in front of Phantom Currency past the half but just as that challenger began to drop back, Ry's the Guy started to come with his bid and drew even with the son of The Factor around the far turn.

The nimble turn of foot from Factor This allowed him to put a bit of daylight between himself and his rivals entering the lane but that reprieve was short lived as Hierarchy came to him in deep stretch. To Cox's relief, that's as far as an upset bid would get as Factor This hit the wire a half-length in front to capture the race for a second straight year.

“Our horse wears blinkers and I think wants he feels the pressure of the other horse, he's got a lot of fight in him,” Cox said. “He showed that this winter at the Fair Grounds and probably showed it more than ever this summer at Churchill in the Wise Dan.

“(The soft turf) was another thing he had to overcome today. There was some pace presence today, the post and he won this race last year and set the track record – I know the race has only been run a few times at that distance.”

The final time was 2:04.52 over a course rated soft. Split the Wickets was third, 3 ¾-lengths behind runner-up Hierarchy.

“He got a perfect trip saving a lot of ground and got out, but he was second-best,” said Corey Lanerie, jockey of Hierarchy. “We just couldn't go by him.”

Factor This has two fees-paid berths in $1 million races: the Grade 3 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 12 at 1 1/2 miles – a race he was fourth in last year – and the Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on September 5 for winning the Fair Grounds' Grade 2 Muniz.

“We're going to let the dust settle. I think we'd like to take a shot in the Grade 1 on Derby Day,” Cox said. “I feel l like kept a pretty close eye on that division from a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter and I don't see anyone to be scared of, to be honest with you. I think this horse can win a Grade 1, given the right set up and the distance.”

Owned by Gaining Ground Racing and bred in Kentucky out of the Singspiel (IRE) mare Capricious Miss (GB), Factor This has won four of five starts in this his 5-year-old campaign with his lone defeat being a third-place run in the Colonel E. R. Bradley Stakes at Fair Grounds on January 18. He is also unbeaten in three starts at Ellis Park and improves his overall mark to 11 wins from 30 starts with $902,780 in earnings.

“He's a cool horse. I get along with him and he makes my job easy,” Bridgmohan said. “You just have to get him in position and he usually does it all. They come to him and he fights. He makes me look good every time. He's a hard-trying horse and as gutsy as they come. I'm just a passenger on him. He does all the work.”

Background: Factor This taking owners on “pretty crazy” ride

Quotes
Brad Cox, winning trainer, Factor This (by phone from Louisville): “There was obviously another horse up there on the pace. That's a tough post (11) to win from, the way they angle the gate at the quarter pole. He had to overcome some things today. Laid in the two path around both turns. But overall, I was super pleased with the horse. He always shows up. Very happy with Shaun and the position he put him in. We talked it over this morning how we thought the race would come up. Shaun had a good feeling the horse next to us on the lead would be right there, so he was prepared for that. He did a good job evaluating that. He really gets the most out of this horse.”

(On 1 Hierarchy coming on late) “Yeah he was. Our horse wears blinkers and I think wants he feels the pressure of the other horse, he's got a lot of fight in him. He showed that this winter at the Fair Grounds and probably showed it more than ever this summer at Churchill in the Wise Dan.”

Factor This has two fees-paid berths in $1 million races: the $1 million, Grade 3 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 12 at 1 1/2 miles (a race he was fourth in last year after setting the pace) from winning the Ellis race, and the 1 1/8-mile Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5, Derby Day for winning the Fair Grounds' Grade 2 Muniz.

“We're going to let the dust settle. We'll talk to Tom and Brian Cutshall. I think we'd like to take a shot in the Grade 1 Derby Day. People are going to say it's a Grade 1. I feel l like kept a pretty close eye on that division from a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter and I don't see anyone to be scared of, to be honest with you. I think this horse can win a Grade 1, given the right set up and the distance.”

The post Factor This Digs In To Win Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Grass is Greener at Kentucky Downs

The most savvy European horse people have long had autumn dates annually etched onto their calendars at courses like Woodbine, Arlington, Keeneland and Belmont, where sizable purses are up for the taking for those enterprising enough to travel.

As the tempo begins to climb toward those fall features, however, there is another American racecourse that has gotten first run, and it is possible you have never even heard of it.

Beginning on Sept. 7 through Sept. 16, The Runhappy Meet at Kentucky Downs-situated 2 1/2 hours southwest of Lexington on the Tennessee border-will stage its annual turf-only meet over six days offering $10 million in purses on the grass with the maximum payout available to Kentucky-breds.

There are 16 stakes races slated, five of which are graded. The richest opportunity is the $1-million GIII Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup going a mile and a half for 3-year-olds and older-Leopardstown’s G3 Kilternan S. run on the same day over the same distance is worth approximately $112,000, and the next day’s G2 Prix Foy has a purse of $146,000. The Runhappy Meet at Kentucky Downs will host stakes over a mile and six furlongs for 3-year-olds and older, the Listed Tourist Mile for $750,000 and the GIII Runhappy Turf Sprint worth $700,000 and part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series-there are Group 1s happening during the same week in Europe worth less money.

During a time of year in Europe where restricted 3-year-old opportunities at the pattern level have largely disappeared, Kentucky Downs has four stakes for that generation highlighted by the Listed Gun Runner Dueling Grounds Derby and the Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks over 2100 metres and worth $750,000 and $500,000, respectively. There are four black-type opportunities for 2-year-olds both colts and fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs and a mile with purses from $400,000 to $500,000, while the eight Group 2 and 3 2-year-old races during the same week in Britain, Ireland and France range from $80,000 to $170,000. Even maiden races at the meet are worth $90,000 and allowance races up to $100,000. Purses of black-type races at Kentucky Downs include a 40% to 50% contribution from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund and those extra funds are restricted to horses bred in the state. Therefore, bringing a Kentucky-bred back to its home turf is the most lucrative option.

Both the purses and the KTDF are fueled largely by Kentucky Downs’s on-site casino, which features historical horse racing games where players wager on real races that have already been run but are randomly selected from a library and have had the horses’ names removed.

“Our purses are the largest daily purses in the world except for Japan,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’s senior vice president and general manager. “The purse structure is generated primarily through historical horse racing, which has become very popular in Kentucky. In a normal year we would generate approximately $20 million in purse money that has to be distributed. Last year our purse structure here was about $11.5 million, and we had sent $5.2 million to Ellis Park. So between the two meets last year we were close to $17 million and we had projected to be just shy of $20 million for this year before COVID kind of put the stop to everybody’s fun.”

Indeed, COVID-19 threw a bit of a wrench in the track’s upward momentum with its casino closed for three months between March and June, but that proved to be a minor blip on the radar. Nicholson reported business to be strong since the casino’s patrons were welcomed back on June 10.

The ever-shrinking world of bloodstock trade means that Kentucky-breds are sprinkled across the globe, and Nicholson explained why the Kentucky Downs meeting is a lucrative opportunity for European horsemen to bring their Kentucky-breds back to their place of birth.

“A small percentage of each wager on our gaming floor goes toward the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund,” he said. “Ultimately, our purses are eye-opening because of the KTDF. We have a race on Sept. 10 called the Gun Runner Dueling Grounds Derby and it’s for 3-year-olds going 1 5/16 miles [2100 metres] and the purse is $750,000. Half of that, $375,000, is from the KTDF. So if you came here with a [non Kentucky-bred] and won that race, you’re running for $375,000. But if you’re a Kentucky-bred you’re running for $750,000. So it’s dramatic. Most of the stakes are about a 50% enhancement which comes from the KTDF. If you have a Kentucky-bred and you’re not racing here, you need to scratch your head a little bit.”

While coronavirus restrictions will make travel details from Europe to Kentucky in 2020 a challenge, the meeting traditionally holds a slot on the calendar where it could be used as a prep some Woodbine’s high-profile turf cards or the Breeders’ Cup when travel does become commonplace again.

“The way our meet is positioned seven weeks in front of the Breeders’ Cup does set us up pretty well to get horses here, have them run for a sizeable purse and if they run well they’re going to set themselves up well for a nice run in the Breeders’ Cup,” Nicholson said.

And while the large prize pots are a nice perk for the humans, the horses will enjoy a course something akin to what they have at home. Kentucky Downs is not a traditional American oval, but rather a wide, sweeping and undulating course.

“In most spots the course is over 120-feet wide,” Nicholson said. “When you look at it from the announcer’s booth you can see the course elevating up the backstretch and then as they go around the far turn the course does dip down; it’s not dramatic but it is noticeable. There is a little jog to the right as they’re about to go into the far turn. It’s a very unique course. It’s 1 5/16 miles [2100 metres] around. Most of the races are one-turn because we can run up a mile and 70 yards going one-turn. When we do run longer races they’re typically a mile and a half or 1 5/16 miles. The jockeys love the course. Our track superintendent, Butch Lehr, is very well known in the United States and for about 30 years was the track superintendent at Churchill Downs. So he knows his way around a blade of grass.”

During a time when it is becoming increasingly necessary to shop around for the best purses on offer, Kentucky Downs is a bright beacon for trainers with Kentucky-breds in their yards. Already a hidden gem among the American racetrack community, it is not likely to fly under the radar on the global stage much longer.

The post Grass is Greener at Kentucky Downs appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Factor This, Mr. Misunderstood Headline Cox Contingent For Sunday’s Kentucky Downs Preview

There have been nine total stakes run in the first two years of Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs Preview Day, with trainer Brad Cox winning three and no other trainer winning more than one. Cox can pad that stat Sunday as he sends out four horses in the five $100,000 turf stakes designed as launching pads to big-money races at Kentucky Downs' all-grass meet.

The Cox arsenal is headlined by Factor This, who will try to repeat in the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup, and Mr. Misunderstood, who won the inaugural Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile in 2018 and was third last year. (Cox also won the 2018 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup with Arklow, who in his next start captured Kentucky Downs' $750,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup.)

Gaining Ground Racing's Factor This, a $62,500 claim two years ago, has already surpassed last year's breakout season, when he won three races and finished fourth after setting the pace in the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Turf Cup, whose purse was upped to $1 million last year. Factor This started his 5-year-old season with a third but has ripped off three stakes wins since, sweeping New Orleans' Grade 3 Fair Grounds Stakes and Grade 2 Muniz Memorial before taking Churchill Downs' Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Wise Dan in his last start.

Cox is using the Ellis stakes as a prep for Churchill Downs' $1 million Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic on the delayed Kentucky Derby card Sept. 5. That Grade 1 stakes is 1 1/8 miles, with Cox believing the 1 1/4-mile at Ellis is a better setup than running in the mile stakes as a prep.

“We didn't want to go from the Wise Dan and give him all the time” in between, Cox said. “He had some time between the Muniz and the Wise Dan, and we believed the 1 1/4 mile-and-a-quarter race would fit in well on the schedule in terms of trying to make the race Derby Day. He likes to be able to break and clear off if given the opportunity, and you're going to be able to do that at a mile and a quarter more than a mile. I think his perfect distance is a mile and an eighth.”

Once put on turf, Mr. Misunderstood stamped himself among the best turf milers in the Midwest, winning eight stakes in 2017-2018. An illness hampered his 2019 season, but Mr. Misunderstood seemed to be back to form in winning Churchill Downs' Grade 3 River City for the second year in a row last November. Three races this year have been disappointments but have shown a progression, most recently a second in a tough Churchill Downs allowance race won by Preview Tourist Mile rival Spectacular Gem.

“He's run good,” Cox said. “He's had two races off the (four-month) layoff. The (handicapping) numbers are solid. He's won this race before. He's doing well. I'm happy with the way he's training. I think with a good trip, he'll be effective.”

Cox has Vanbrugh in the RUNHAPPY Preview Turf Sprint, Juddmonte Farm's 5-year-old gelding making his second start in the U.S. after racing in Europe. Vanbrugh was second in his American debut, a 1 1/16-mile Churchill allowance race that also was his first start in ninth months. Cox thinks the Ellis race's 5 1/2-furlong distance will be a bit short, but the goal is to get Vanbrugh to the $700,000 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint at six furlongs at Kentucky Downs.

Meadow Dance comes into the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Sprint for Cox off of a second in Prairie Meadows' Iowa Distaff at 1 1/16 miles. A six-furlong specialist, she's trying turf and 5 1/2 furlongs for the first time.

Looking ahead to Aug. 9, Cox said he and owner Godolphin are “leaning toward” running Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense in the $200,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby. “Right now I'd say we're pointing toward Ellis,” Cox said, adding of Keeneland's Toyota Blue Grass winner Art Collector, “We'll have to step up. Maybe if we move forward and that horse regresses we can beat him.”

Shared Sense was second to Art Collector in an inordinately tough four-horse allowance race at Churchill Downs.

Ellis Park will stage an all-turf Pick 5 on Sunday's stakes, which on Thursday drew a total of 55 entries: an overflow 13 in the Preview Ladies Turf, capacity 12 in the Preview Turf Cup and Preview Tourist Mile, 10 in the Preview Ladies Sprint and eight in the Preview Turf Sprint.
The $100,000 purse for each race includes $25,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. The purse money for the stakes was generated at Kentucky Downs and transferred to Ellis Park in an arrangement with the horsemen's group at both tracks, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

The post Factor This, Mr. Misunderstood Headline Cox Contingent For Sunday’s Kentucky Downs Preview appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Ky Downs Set to Open The Mint Gaming Hall in September

Kentucky Downs will open its Mint Gaming Hall, a new 30,000 square-foot historical horse racing (HHR) in early September, and will coincide with the track’s live six-day racing meet. The hall, which will add more than 600 historical horse racing terminals, will also include a new multi-media Center Bar, entertainment stage and a new high-limit betting area.
The addition of The Mint Gaming Hall is the first of a multi-phase expansion and growth plan that began last year since it was sold in March 2019.
“We are always seeking ways to enhance the guest experience and can’t wait to provide more food and beverage offerings, more live music and more entertainment,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ senior vice president and general manager.
“Our growth continues to solidify Kentucky Downs’ role as an economic engine for the Franklin-Simpson area and beyond as both an attraction and an employer.”
For more information, visit www.themintgaming.com

The post Ky Downs Set to Open The Mint Gaming Hall in September appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post