“The Toughest Game Played Outdoors”

We are all the products of our environment. Tim Thornton could see as much, when he saw a foal that had been delivered at sea trying to walk on dry land for the first time. “He was, like, six weeks old,” he recalls. “It was so funny to see him get off that ship, rocking everywhere, giving it the sea legs.”

But then that's pretty well how Thornton himself might have felt, as one born and bred for horses, had he ever been torn away to work in some other walk of life.

Even today, seven years after retiring from a long career with Airdrie Stud, he still has around 15 mares–many in partnership with his old buddy Tony Holmes–on a 330-acre farm established by his father in 1946 outside Paris, KY. This was where Thornton first learned about horses, and this is where he continues to find them a daily source of wonder and discovery. In between, for three decades as general manager of Airdrie, he could be entrusted with any and every responsibility, especially while his employer Brereton C. Jones had one or two other claims on his attention. For the Governor of Kentucky knew that here was a man whose innate flair for horses had been honed to a degree uncommon even in the Bluegrass–and never more so, indeed, than in the remarkable 14,000-mile voyage that had induced such a comical stagger in that sea-born foal.

It was Humphrey Finney who had urged Carter Thornton to send his son Tim, on graduating college, to complete his equine education a little further afield.

“Dad wanted me to come here and work right off,” Thornton recalls. “But he said okay, and let me go to England and work at the National Stud there. And then Humphrey got me onto this ship, from Southampton to New Zealand: 170 horses, the most ever gone to sea. It was pretty amazing.”

A couple of years previously, Thornton had taken a rather smaller number through the Panama Canal with Charlie Nuckols.

“That gave me the appetite, that's why I wanted to do it again,” he says. “But I didn't know it was going to be 60 days of sea. Going through Panama was only two weeks, but going around Africa took forever.”

And with so many more horses! They ranged from an 18-hand Clydesdale to miniature ponies.

“There had only been 14 head going through Panama,” Thornton recalls. “But that wasn't even a livestock ship, they were just strapped on the back. The waves would come over, it was just wood crates and a couple times we had to fix the wood back down. That was much more dangerous than the big ship. Those 170 were all below deck and air-conditioned and in steel pipe pens.”

Nonetheless, confinement and rolling seas brought obvious risks to a creature that must colic instead of vomit. Hence a low-energy diet, bran mash and so forth.

“I mean, one would get colicky every once in a while, but luckily nothing bad,” Thornton says. “But because of the disease factor, they wouldn't let us stop anywhere. Our first stop after England was Perth. From Perth we went over to Sydney and unloaded some more. And from there we went another 1,200 miles to New Zealand and unloaded the last. It was a good experience. Wouldn't want to make a living of it, but it was something to see.”

Topping off this unique lesson was the chance to escort a Thoroughbred from the hold to Ra Ora Stud for Sir Woolf Fisher, and then to stay on for six months working at Widden Stud (and becoming fast friends with “Bim” Thompson).

He had seen quite another world, then, by the time he returned to Threave Main–and another world is just how the family farm, in that era, might strike the younger generation today. For it was still possible in the 1960s for a small family operation to maintain a thriving stallion program. At a time when people referred to 20 mares as a full book, even the factory farms couldn't monopolize the mare population. As a result, the Thorntons were routinely able to stand half a dozen stallions including The Doge, sire of Hall of Famer Swoon's Son, and the imported British sprinter Tudor Grey (GB).

Carter Thornton had himself made an equally uncommon start in the game, aged just 19 when invited to succeed his grandfather–who had himself first learned his horsemanship with draft horses–as manager of Fairholme Farm for Robert A. Fairbairn, who had been part of the syndicate that imported Blenheim and Sir Gallahad. What names! One way or another, then, several generations of horse lore were condensed into the energetic young man from Threave Main who caught the attention of Kentucky's new lieutenant governor in 1988.

“Hopefully he would go on to be governor, so knew he wasn't going to be around that much and was looking for a manager,” Thornton explains. “He knew me, from breeding mares over there and so on, and knew I'd been around stallions a lot. Main thing, he knew I was honest; and he knew I was a hard worker. And we just got along real good. Couldn't have been a better relationship. He was a great boss but has become a great friend. I mean, I consider him almost like kin. And we always owned a couple of horses together. He'd do that with you. We had fun.”

And the things that made Jones a great boss, according to Thornton, were exactly the same as those that served him so well as governor.

“Definitely,” he says. “I mean, everybody loved him, from the people running the state to the grooms at Airdrie. Because they knew he's honest and he treated you fair. His word was his bond. And he expected that from everybody else too. That's why he always had good people around him. And that's kind of like my dad was, too.”

That trust became the foundation of Thornton's long tenure at Airdrie. During his employer's terms of public service, he found all manner of responsibilities delegated his way.

“Pretty much I did it all,” he acknowledges. “Recruiting, all that kind of thing. I was hands-on, every part of the farm. But we had a real good stallion manager, Kelly McDaniel, who was there forever. Really good guy. Another unbelievable guy was the broodmare manager Mark Cunningham, an Australian who's been there 40-something years now. He's really down-to-earth and you can't run him off the farm. He's a worker, and a very good horseman. And then we had a real good yearling manager, Richard Royster. Brery's philosophy was that if you did a good job, he didn't bother you. He knew you could do it. And it was the same for me: if my people are doing a good job, I don't bother them. That's a successful way to run a farm.”

All that said, Thornton stresses that it was Jones who always had his hand on the tiller; Jones, even with all his other distractions, whose inspired stallion recruitment and syndication were the foundation of the farm's half century of success.

“He couldn't afford the $15-million horses,” Thornton says. “But he was such a good promoter and even though he had to buy cheaper, he always had the best-looking horses in Central Kentucky. Never had an ugly horse in the barn. And that was something he could promote, because they'd have good-looking foals that would sell. And he did it over and over. So people started getting in line to buy shares. He was really at the cutting edge of syndicating and making the first-year horse popular. And he was an unbelievable salesman.”

Moreover Jones would put his money where his mouth was, building up an unusually large broodmare band of his own to support the stallions. He ran an aggressive program, but the farm has always retained an unchanging bedrock of trust and probity.

“Brery had some battles, but he wouldn't back up, believe me,” Thornton observes. “He's the most genuine, honest person and has really been so good for the horse business. And though he had a few clients, 95% of those horses were his. That's what amazed everybody. He had, like, 150 mares. That was a lot back then. And it was so much more fun just to deal with your own horses, rather than with clients!”

The ultimate vindication of this strategy, of course, was three homebred GI Kentucky Oaks winners in eight years.

Larry Jones, Rosie Napravnik and Brereton Jones after Believe You Can's victory in the GI Kentucky Oaks | Getty Images

“That's probably one of the things I'm proudest of,” Thornton says. “All three RNAs. Unbelievable. That was always one of the good things about him, he wasn't afraid to race. He was pretty much a commercial breeder, but he'd set a value on them and if they didn't bring that, he would race them. And he's been so lucky with smaller fillies. With the smaller ones, it's not as hard on their joints. But you lead one up to the sale ring and see what happens. It's weird. Seems like every good filly Brery's had has been smallish. So he's always upped the ante, on the reserve, if they're small because he figures they can run. Especially after Proud Spell (Proud Citizen). She was a game, sweet girl.”

Thornton's own continued engagement with the marketplace means that he can proudly monitor the legacy he built up with his former employer. Every few pages, in every catalogue, one of the stallions they made will be right there in the second or third generation–notably Harlan's Holiday through Into Mischief, and Indian Charlie through Uncle Mo.

“Probably one of my favorite horses, Indian Charlie,” says Thornton. “I can't get enough Indian Charlie mares. He was such a good sire, and such a nice horse to be around. He always put such a pretty horse on the ground. Stretchy, good-looking horses. And he's even doing it now, through those mares. Half their foals end up big, stretchy horses like him. It's amazing, all that coming from that gene.”

Indian Charlie | Barbara Livingston

Not so amazing, mind you, when you see the parallel genetic heritage handed down from one generation of Thorntons to the next.

Thornton's father, setting aside wartime service training air pilots, gave him a direct link to another era; to an age when yearlings were walked from Winchester to be loaded onto the train to be sold at Saratoga. You're looking at four generations of hardboot lore stretching to a great-grandfather who'd started out with draft horses and ended up selling Hoop Jr. for Fairbairn. Another Kentucky Derby winner, Canonero II, was subsequently raised here at Threave Main for breeder Edward B. Benjamin.

“But the horse was crooked so Mr. Benjamin got rid of him,” Thornton says with a shrug. “He brought $1,200 as a weanling. Just shows, you never know.”

Yes, well, that's never going to change! But nor will the benefits secured for horses by those who do the job right; who have the patience to do things the way their forefathers did, without cutting corners. That's why this man and this land continue to outpunch their weight. With his old employer, Thornton co-owned 2015 GI Mother Goose S. winner Include Betty (Include); and more recently he raised one of the richest Thoroughbreds in history in G1 Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road (Quality Road).

“A lot of things are done a lot fancier than back in the day,” Thornton reflects, before trying to explain what has been lost in the process. “Just old values. Tried-and-true things that work. Some of the best experiences are right here. Growing up on this farm and learning from dad, and running a bunch of horses, with not very much help, just us doing it all ourselves, hands on.

“In the '50s and '60s we always had five or six studs here. Cheap horses, $2,500 to $3,500 horses. But back then, you could make money breeding a horse like that. It was good living. We raised tobacco, and cows. Still like a cow. And I bale all my own bedding. Saves a lot of money. It's definitely an old-school farm. We're kind of proud of it, because there's not that many left.”

His father was such a thoroughgoing horseman that summertime he would go off and train at places like Delaware and Monmouth, especially fillies that could be bred someday. Some won stakes, like the 18-for-41 sprinter Plumb Gray or another daughter of Tudor Grey, Little Tudor, who won the Debutante S. at Churchill.

“Just hard-knocking horses,” says Thornton. “But the farm and the track, back then, were together. For years it was just the trainer and the owner would go around and buy horses. Now you've got all these agents, scared of their jobs. Every hair's got to be perfect in line, or they won't touch it. And they let so many good horses go by.”

That's a market environment that makes it hard for farms on this scale to remain viable. Though his nephew Eric Buckley ran Threave Main for several years, nowadays it is Thornton's daughter Jessica who channels the family horsemanship into a fifth generation as a reproductive veterinarian.

“There's not many family farms left really,” Thornton says. “We're kind of proud of being one, but it's tough with these big conglomerates taking over. It's getting harder and harder to play ball. The purses are really good, that's what's keeping the yearling market going. But the bottom line is you need quality. We try to upgrade every year, get rid of two or three [mares] and buy one. But it's so expensive. You can't breed your cheap horse anymore and make a living. The labor situation's gotten so tough, and you got put a lot more into the stud fees to compete.”

He has seen things become similarly challenging for trainers who try to maintain the same hardboot standards; and doesn't see many of the same stamp as Larry Jones, who trained all three of those Oaks winners.

“He's just a down-to earth, no-nonsense horseman,” Thornton says. “Kind of like me, hands-on and old school. He trained for me a little bit, too, but he's cutting back. Got a farm down in Henderson, fixed up real nice. But he can flat train a horse.

“You can't get any labor and the cost of operating is just getting out of hand as far as smaller guys to make a living. You can't do it. And it's gotten to be these big conglomerates that are doing it. Can't knock them. But you don't have to like it.”

As a result, though, very few general managers today will handle stallions daily the way Thornton always did. He loved to have just a couple of other people around, letting Mother Nature govern as much of the covering process as could be safely allowed.

So, yes, Thornton might strongly resemble a particular president; and he may have shown Silver Hawk to the late Queen of England, while discussing each other's corgis. But he already has the highest status he could wish for, as a horseman's horseman.

“I'm very lucky to have been among horses all of my life,” he says. “You'll always learn something every day. I went to Airdrie in '88 and was there 30 years. We had a lot of changes. We had a lot of fun. They say time flies. I mean, Bret [Jones, Brery's son] was raised up when I was over there and now he's running it. That's amazing, to me, but he's a great boy. He's got a lot of his daddy in him. He's doing a good job and I'm so happy for him. He was smart enough to buy into Girvin. Who would have known Girvin was going to do what he has? But he's on fire now. It's a good feather in his hat.

“He can't pay the crazy money, either. But if it was an exact science, nobody would be in the business. If you don't like this game, you don't need to be in it because it's the toughest game played outdoors. Dealing with Mother Nature, and livestock, the lows can be very low. But the highs are very high. I'm lucky to be bred and raised into it, and lucky to be still going seven days a week. I love it.”

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My Preakness Weekend: Highs, Lows and the Fragility of Life

As has been said many times about the Thoroughbred industry: it is a business with highs and lows; more lows than highs; the highs are very high and the lows are very low.

It was an emotional weekend of racing for me. The highs have been the results of two races. The lows, the thoughts of those not here to celebrate with me.

First, Dazzling Blue ran her record to three-for-three Friday with a, well, dazzling performance at Churchill Downs. Then, Sunday, Weehawken broke her maiden by three lengths at Woodbine.

I planned the mating of Dazzling Blue's dam, the Curlin mare Blue Violet, and I am the managing partner of Redd Road Stable, which, by design, owns exactly one horse–Weehawken.

Nineteen years ago, my late partner, Susan Knoll, after being a member of a partnership group, made the decision to begin her own small racing and breeding operation.

She was what the industry constantly needs, a person passionate about horses who, when they find themselves financially able, decides to race and breed.

At the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale, trainer Larry Jones purchased three fillies for Susan. The least expensive of the group was a filly by Silver Deputy out of the Theatrical mare Gaslight, purchased for $12,000.

Though most yearlings sold at auction are not already named, that was not the case with this filly, who was named Speedy Edy, which Susan did not like.

Susan changed her name to Gasia, after Gasia Mikaelian, then a television newscaster in Houston, where Susan lived and practiced law. The name is actually pronounced goss-e-a, but those in the barn, and then track announcers, pronounced it geisha, so we let them have their way, and their say.

In Susan's colors, Gasia won six times, three of those races stakes: the Susan's Girl Breeders' Cup at Delaware Park, and the Bayakoa and Instant Racing Breeders' Cup Stakes, both at Oaklawn. She raced through age 4, earning $434.231.

Retired to Catherine Parke's Valkyre Stud near Georgetown, Ky., Gasia was mated to Pulpit, producing a colt in 2009. When it came time to breed her back, there was a new stallion taking up residence at Lane's End Farm. I begged Susan to breed to him. His name was Curlin.

I loved everything about Curlin: his pedigree, his race record, his conformation. I was totally convinced he would be a wonderful choice for Gasia.

Susan decided to breed Gasia to Curlin (his first-year fee was $80,000) with the thought of selling the resulting foal if a colt and retaining to race if a filly.

Gasia produced a filly in 2010 Susan named Blue Violet. The name was chosen for three reasons: she had been sent poems that began “roses are red, violets are blue,” violets were her favorite flower or plant; and there is a crayon in the Crayola box named Blue Violet. Also trained by Larry Jones, Blue Violet won four races and $237,356, including the Lady's Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Straight off the racetrack, Blue Violet was one of the first through the ring at the 2015 Keeneland November sale. She was purchased by WinStar Farm for $350,000. Though she produced two winners from her first three foals, Blue Violet was slated to be sold by WinStar at the 2023 Keeneland January sale. But a funny thing happened. Her third foal, Dazzling Blue, by Into Mischief, showing at the time the catalog was printed as unraced, had won her first two starts including a stakes.

WinStar withdrew Blue Violet from the sale, and she has since produced a colt by Bold d'Oro and been bred to the farm's newest stallion, Life is Good, a grade I-winning son of Into Mischief.

In the fall of 2021, at a cocktail/anniversary party at the farm of Joe and Annie Markham, I was approached by Joe about forming a partnership among friends and acquaintances. Before the night was over, we had enough commitments.

I told Joe I wanted the stable to be named Redd Road because that is the location of his farm not far from the back entrance to Keeneland. He said that was fine as long as he could name the horse Weehawken, the name of the street in Frankfort, Ky., where our good friends Phil and Chris Perry grew up. Both are also partners in the filly.

As the managing partner of Redd Road Stable, I asked another old friend, Mark Casse, if he would select us a horse at auction and become our trainer.

At the 2022 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March auction, Mark bought a filly for us by Daddy Long Legs out of the Forest Wildcat mare Wildcat Gold for $85,000.

With her pedigree, we figured Weehawken would prefer grass racing, but that proved difficult last year. We entered at Ellis Park and rain forced the race to the main track so we scratched. When that happened a second time, we ran and she finished a credible third in her maiden voyage.

After a good fifth at Kentucky Downs, twice we entered turf races at Keeneland and twice we were excluded. We finally ran on dirt, where she tired badly going seven furlongs.

With Churchill Downs not an option because of issues with its turf course, we opted for the synthetic surface at Turfway Park, where she was beaten a neck in her first start there, and then ran third and sixth.

Because she had been in training since the previous summer, we sent Weehawken to Casse's training center in Ocala, Fla., for a few months freshening, then, at my suggestion, shipped her to Woodbine, where he has a large stable and she would have the option of synthetic or turf.

Sunday, after three months off, Weehawken broke sharply as usual, eased her way up the lead and, under Kazushi Kimura, coasted home three lengths in front.

The Redd Road silks were in the winner's circle for the first time, representing 18 partners, nearly all newcomers to the sport.

Honestly, I was confident Weehawken would win, this being her first start since our founding member, Joe Markham, lost his battle with cancer.

Redd Road Stable plans to send Mark Casse to next month's OBS sale to find us another runner. The stable was fortunate to enlist the services of Casse, but also his assistants, Allen Hardy in Kentucky and Kathryn Sullivan in Toronto.

Everything Susan raced or bred was in her name, primarily because it was her money. But, also because I was working at the time for an industry trade publication and wanted no appearance of a conflict of interest (each year I supplied my superiors a list of her horses, matings, etc.).

In retrospect, maybe this isn't really a story of highs and lows. The deaths of Susan Knoll and Joe Markham aren't lows but reminders to us of how fragile life is, how much our hearts are broken when we lose those we love. How we should enjoy each day, each experience…truly celebrate the highs. How decisions made at auctions, in racing and training schedules, in planning matings…can lead us into the winner's circle.

Dazzling Blue looks like something special; Weehawken's future appears bright. One is owned by a leading stud farm; the other by a new partnership of friends.

The industry needs both. Through its many highs and lows, the industry needs both.

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Pondering Retirement, Jones Seeks His First Groupie Doll Win With Istan Council

For all the races he's won at his hometown track, trainer Larry Jones could be looking at his final shot to win one of Ellis Park's signature races, Sunday's $125,000 Groupie Doll Stakes at the Henderson, Ky., track.

Jones will saddle Brereton Jones' Istan Council in the mile race, which attracted an overflow field of 13 fillies and mares. The trainer long has pointed horses for the Groupie Doll, and its various incarnations that include being called the Gardenia and the Coca-Cola Handicap. Istan Council is among his starters, having finished third last year behind victorious Lady Kate and New Roo, both of whom return.

A native of Hopkinsville, Ky., Jones has considered Henderson home for most of his adult life. He started his racehorse ownership career at Ellis Park in 1980 and officially began training his horses in 1982, going 0 for 42 before winning a $2,700 maiden-claiming race at Ellis Park in 1983. Fast forward 1,184 wins and almost $55.2 million in purse earnings later, and Jones is strongly considering retiring. Or at least what passes for retirement for someone who only is comfortable sitting if it's in a saddle.

Of course, Jones retired once before, with his wife Cindy taking over the stable in 2010, and that lasted a year. But circumstances are different now.

Rick Porter, the Delaware car dealer and champion owner who supplied Jones with standouts such as Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and Kentucky Derby runners-up Hard Spun and Eight Belles, died in June. Also, the most recent of a sequence of serious injuries sustained during freak training mishaps has relegated Jones to his pony, frustrating the trainer who for decades got on all of his toughest racehorses.

“I figure we'll get through the Oaklawn meet this winter,” Jones said. “But I have had some owners call me, wanting me to take horses next year, and I've turned them down. I don't know if we have any stars in the barn right now. If some of these 2-year-olds turn out to be really good, I'm sure I'll try to see them through their career.

“Since Mr. Porter passed away, and we don't have as many horses for Governor (Brereton) Jones as we did, yeah, we'll probably go,” he said, adding a caveat, “I don't know if I'll ever quit. I own several horses myself. But we'll definitely get down to where I don't have to travel. I'm really getting tired of living out of a suitcase. We've done it for 40 years now, and very extensively for the last 25…. I don't know if I'll completely stop, because I've got a few broodmares, and I've got to do something with these babies. But basically Larry Jones will be on the ownership side of all of them.”

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Of course, being an owner requires a trainer. Jones was self-taught and didn't come up under anyone. In that regard, it's hard to imagine Jones having horses with somebody else.

“Well, that's what I was trying to think,” he agreed. “I can't find anybody that I really want. The last time I quit, I got that Cindy Jones to train for us. But she said she's not doing it anymore, either.”

In the meantime, he has Istan Council in the Groupie Doll, owned by former Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones (no relation), supplied Larry Jones with his three Kentucky Oaks winners. Istan Council comes into the Groupie Doll off a runner-up finish in the Iowa Distaff won by Josie, who also is in Sunday's stakes. Sophie Doyle, the regular rider of Larry Jones' Grade 1-winning filly Street Band, has the mount.

“In the Iowa Distaff, I think Josie had the perfect trip,” Jones said. “I think we had a very good trip. We jumped out, just laying just off the pace, and felt like we had the leader when we wanted her. Then here came Josie and made us start having to hustle up and go. And we still got the jump on Josie, and Josie ran by her down the lane. But she ran a nice race.”

Jones loves the Groupie Doll as a race, even though he also got beat in it last year with Street Band, who finished sixth in her career finale. He finished second in 2012 with Joyful Victory, who a few races later won a Grade 1 race at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

“I always wanted to try to have something for here,” Jones said. “This is still a very marquee race.”

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Pair Of Stakes Races Added To Ellis Park’s 2021 Racing Season

Ellis Park is back on track to offer record purses while adding two new stakes for the 2021 racing season. The meet runs Sunday June 27 through Saturday Sept. 4.

Racing secretary Dan Bork said maiden races likely will top the record $50,000 achieved in 2019 before the pandemic forced cutbacks last year in the wake of a three-month shutdown. Average daily purses should top $350,000, which would be the highest in Ellis Park's 99-year history. Those numbers include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements, for which the vast majority of horses are eligible.

The condition book, which details the races for which entries will be taken on a given day, will be finalized in May after the Kentucky Derby, Bork said. Meanwhile, a 14-race stakes schedule was announced today, highlighted by the highly successful Kentucky Downs Preview Day now becoming Preview Weekend on Aug. 7-8 with the two new races. Six stakes received $25,000 purse increases over last year.

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, Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles.

“We should have very quality racing,” said trainer Larry Jones, the Hopkinsville native and long-time Henderson resident who has spent most of the summers of his training career at Ellis Park. “With the extra stakes and the money the way it is, it's going to bring in a lot better outfits – horses that maybe would have gone to Saratoga will stay and race at Ellis. I'm looking forward to it. It reminds you of days gone by.”

The Preview Dueling Grounds Derby and Oaks are set for Saturday Aug. 7, along with the Preview Turf Sprint. The remaining four stakes are scheduled for Sunday Aug. 8: the Preview Turf Cup, Preview Ladies Sprint, Preview Ladies Turf and Preview Mint Million Mile.

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 a week later on Aug. 15, headlined by the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby. Last year's running of the 1 1/8-mile race was captured by Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass winner Art Collector. Also that day again will be the Groupie Doll for fillies and mares, the Ellis Park Juvenile and Ellis Park Debutante — each increased to $125,000 from 2020 — along with the $100,000 Audubon Oaks at seven-eighths of a mile.

The Eddie Kenneally-trained Lady Kate won last year's Groupie Doll and then finished second to two-time champion Monomoy Girl in Churchill Downs' Grade 1 La Troienne. Sconsin, who is trained by Greg Foley, went from a third-place finish in last year's Audubon Oaks to victory in Churchill Downs' Grade 2 Eight Belles and a fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

The purse for every stakes includes $25,000 in KTDF supplements for registered Kentucky-breds.

“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.”

The stakes schedule kicks off July 4 with the $75,000 Ellis Park Turf for fillies and mares and the $75,000 Good Lord for older sprinters on July 17.

Boosting Ellis Park's purses is the unique relationship the track has with Kentucky Downs, which through an arrangement with the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & 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.

“Kentucky tracks were hit hard last year with COVID restrictions and the three-month shutdown. It's so great to see things coming back to some sort of normalcy. The Ellis meet should be sensational — the barn area full and crowds as large as the governor permits. There will be no better place in the Tri-State area to break out of cabin fever than at Ellis Park.”

Ellis Park 2021 stakes schedule
Each includes $25,000 KTDF*

Sunday July 4 — $75,000 Ellis Park Turf, fillies & mares, 3 years old & up; 1 1/16 miles (turf).

Saturday July 17 — $75,000 Good Lord, 3-year-olds & up, 6 1/2 furlongs.

Saturday Aug. 7 — $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles (turf); Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint, 3-year-olds & up, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf).

Sunday Aug. 8 — $125,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup, 3-year-olds & up, 1 1/4 miles (turf); Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Sprint, fillies & mares 3 years olds & up, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf, fillies & mares 3 years old & up, one mile (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Mint Million Mile, 3-year-olds & up, mile (turf).

Sunday Aug. 15 — $200,000 Ellis Park Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles; $125,000 Groupie Doll, fillies & mares, 3 years old and up, mile; $125,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, 2-year-olds, 7 furlongs; $125,000 Ellis Park Debutante, 2-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs; $100,000 Audubon Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs.

*Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund

The post Pair Of Stakes Races Added To Ellis Park’s 2021 Racing Season appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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