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Fillies And Mares Take Center Stage Closing Day At Kentucky Downs

Fillies and mares have the stage to themselves Sunday, Sept. 12 in the 10-race final program, Greenbrier Whiskey Day, of the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs.

The six-day turf festival features the highest purses in North America and draws horses from across the country. First post is 12:20 p.m. Central. All the races will be shown on TVG.

The headliner is the $550,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon for older fillies and mares at 1 5/16 miles. Preceding the Music City are a pair of $500,000 sprint stakes, the Ainsworth for 2-year-old fillies and the Nelson's Green Brier Whiskey Music City for 3-year-olds fillies.

In the Ladies Marathon, the final stakes of the season, Godolphin homebred Micheline will try to repeat her success in last year's Dueling Grounds Oaks. The daughter of Bernardini has a single win since her Oaks victory – in the G2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs on March 6 – but all her starts have been in graded stakes company. The Marathon will be her first start since was a well-beaten seventh in the G3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park on July 10. Joel Rosario, who rode her to victory in the Dueling Grounds Oaks, returns to the saddle. Micheline is a daughter of Panty Raid, who won two Grade 1s while earning over $1 million.

Catherine Wills' homebred Luck Money, trained by Arnaud Delacour, was third in last year's Dueling Ground Oaks at 29-1 and since has a listed stakes win and was second in the G3 Dick Memorial. In her last race, she was fourth after weakening late in the G2 1 ½ miles Glens Falls at Saratoga on Aug 7. War Like Goddess cruised in the Glens Falls and on Saturday captured the G1 Flower Bowl at Saratoga.

Cannon Thoroughbreds' Go Big Blue Nation ships in from California for trainer Michael McCarthy, who won this year's Preakness with Rombauer. Go Big Blue Nation stepped back from stakes company on July 18 to win an allowance/optional claimer at 1 3/8 miles at Del Mar.

The Graham Motion-trained Blame Debbie returns to Kentucky Downs where she finished first in an allowance race at the Ladies Marathon distance last year but was disqualified to third for interference. She was fifth in the G2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine on Aug. 22.

The Big Lick Farm homebred Cavalier Cupid is likely to get a lot of attention in the Ainsworth Stakes. Cavalier Cupid, a daughter of Quality Road won the $100,000 Keswick on August 2 at Colonial Downs for trainer Sarah Nagle. The Maryland-bred ran second in her debut on June 22 at Belterra Park. She broke her maiden at Colonial at five furlongs on July 19 and won the five-furlong Keswick by a length two weeks later. Nagle is a former assistant for retired trainer Buff Bradley.

Trainer Wesley Ward will saddle Arnmore Thoroughbreds' Poppy Flower, who most recently was second in the Bolton Landing at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 18. The speedy daughter of Lea led from gate to wire to break her maiden at Belmont Park on June 20. In her return after a two-month break between races, she set the pace over yielding ground but was overtaken in deep stretch. Regular rider Jose Ortiz has the mount.

Mystic Eyes steps up to stakes company for newly inducted Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher after winning her maiden debut impressively at Saratoga on Aug. 5. Sent off as the 3-5 favorite in the field of eight, she seized the lead out of the gate and won in hand by 4 ½ lengths.

The French-bred Cheerupsleepyjean owned by DJ Stable will make her North American debut for trainer Mark Casse from post 11. The daughter of Starspangledbanner has not raced since June but she has been battled tested against strong company. On June 16 at Royal Ascot, she was third by three lengths in the G2 Queen Mary at 50-1. Eleven days later at even-money, she was third in the G2 Arlie Stud Balanchine at the Curragh. Tyler Gaffalione, the 2020 Kentucky Downs riding champ, will be up.

Two-time stakes winner Tobys Heart will cut back in distance in the Music City after two solid performances at a mile. Jockey Joel Rosario, who won 10 of his first 19 starts at the meet this season, will ride for trainer Brian Lynch. Tobys Heart showed ability as a 2-year-old winning the Bolton Landing last summer at Saratoga. In April she prevailed at the favorite in the Limestone Turf Sprint at Keeneland. On July 23 at Saratoga she was third by 1 ½ lengths in a wide trip in the G3 Lake George at Saratoga.

Illegal Smile was a popular song by the beloved late singer-songwriter John Prine and the Camacho filly has proven to be a consistent runner for Hat Creek Racing and Wesley Ward. She broke her maiden in a stakes at Aqueduct in November and reaches the Music City after a pair of runner-up finishes. Last out, she was second by a head in the Galway at Saratoga on Aug. 15.

Peachtree Stable's paid $320,000 for Saranya as a 2-year-old and the daughter of The Factor, who is trained by Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, has a record of 3-3-1 from eight starts. On June 23 she earned her first stakes victory in the Curtis Sampson Stakes at Canterbury Park.

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Kentucky Downs Turf Pick of the Day for Sept. 5

Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato give their best bet for each day of racing during the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs. $100 Win/Place format; highest bankroll at the end wins.

Steve Sherack: Race 2 – Don't think we'll see anything near the 20-1 morning-line quote, but Gamble's Orb can certainly run this field off their heels at a price in her grass debut. She flashed big speed in her first two goes in the Gulfstream slop, dueling and finishing a close second June 25, then dueling and tiring to a well-beaten third July 23. Her dam Forest Gamble (Forest Wildcat) was a razor sharp winner in her lone career start over the Woodbine synthetic, and she has produced a pair of stakes winners over that surface as well. Orb, sire of P. G. Johnson S. winner Orbolution, is certainly capable of siring a turf runner and Gamble's Orb blew out three furlongs over the Palm Meadows turf in :34 3/5 (1/4) Aug. 24. Trainer Joe Orseno shipped in from his South Florida base to capture last year's GIII Runhappy Turf Sprint S. with Imprimis. Selection: #2 Gamble's Orb (20-1).

Brian DiDonato: Race 6 – The 2-year-old maiden races are some of the most interesting and typically wide-open events at Kentucky Downs, and there were several babies who caught my eye on this opening day card. I'll make Go Bali Go my play. He ran a sneaky good race first out after getting squeezed out at the start and making a middle move behind a very slow pace. The fifth-place run when switching to the dirt can be excused–he dueled through a pace rated fast that day on a surface he probably doesn't prefer. His dam was dramatically better on grass and her other progeny have leaned that way too. Freshman sire Bal a Bali was also a turf horse, and his early runners have seemed turfy for the most part as well. I'm hoping for a bit better than the 8-1 morning line, and think Go Bali Go has a solid shot to put it all together this time around. Selection: #4 Go Bali Go (8-1).

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Kentucky To European Horsemen: We Want You

It's easy to see why so many top American stables have made a point of circling the Kentucky Downs meet on their calendars. It mainly comes down to the money. During the unique European-style six-day meet, $10 million alone will be paid out in stakes purses, there are three $1 million races, maiden races go for $125,000 and the purses for allowance races range from $135,000 to $145,000. This year, Chad Brown will be there and so will Wesley Ward, Brad Cox, Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen and many other top stables.

Yet, the story of Kentucky Downs and its purses, among the best in the world, has apparently not traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. From Europe, there has been little to no participation at the annual meet that runs through the early part of September.

“We're the track they've never heard of,” said Kentucky Downs Director of Racing Rick Hammerle.

It's something Kentucky Downs management is hoping to change.

The Kentucky Downs team has decided to make a concerted effort to attract European horsemen, which includes a post COVID-19 trip in 2022 to meet top trainers in person. In the meantime, they're doing everything they can to get their story out, and they have a long list of talking points. It starts with the purses.

A new record will be set this year with $14,903,000 in purse money, which averages out to $2,483,833 a day. It must be noted that, due to funds provided by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF), only Kentucky-breds run for the full listed purse. But even absent that contribution to the purse, the pots are still huge. Generally, about 50 to 60% of the total purse is available to all horses.

“It's kind of surprising that more European horses haven't come over for the Kentucky Downs meet,” said Fergus Galvin, the U.S. racing advisor for Qatar racing, which has been a big supporter of Kentucky Downs. “Quite a bit of the money is tied in with the KTDF money that is built into the purses, but, leave that aside, and the purses are still tremendous, especially when you compare them to what these horse might be running for in Europe. They have races for every category and at every distance, for sprinters, for milers, for route horses. There are a lot of opportunities.”

Hammerle hopes European stables will focus in not on a single race or two but the entire meet. It would make perfect sense for a stable to bring over six or seven horses.

“There are a lot of reasons why people put horses on a plane,” he said. “It's not always for the Breeders' Cup or for a certain race for a certain caliber of horse. It would be great to have Breeders' Cup horses, but there is a whole caliber underneath. You can think of this as something like the Dubai Carnival. Those horses run for a lot of money and not all of them are horses you'll see back on the World Cup card. Historically, people in Europe don't think of a race meet as something to point towards. We'd like to change that.”

There have been a number of horses to win at Kentucky Downs that have started their careers in Europe before moving into U.S. stables. Many of them would not have been considered top-tier horses overseas, but, like many Europeans horse before them, have found that the competition in U.S. grass races is not as strong as it is in England, Ireland and France. Kentucky Downs has also been held back by the graded stakes committee's slow response to its ascendancy. Even with those purses, there are no Grade I races at the meet and only six of the 16 stakes are graded.

Galvin said you wouldn't necessarily need to bring a star over to come away with a lucrative stakes win.

“You wouldn't have to bring over the cream of the crop to be very competitive down there,” he said. “Obviously, the best turf horses in the world are normally based in Europe. So there is a great opportunity for maybe a second-tier type horse to be competitive in any type of race.”

For those who have the ability to perform in the Breeders' Cup, Kentucky Downs also make sense. They can make just one trip to the U.S., run at Kentucky Downs, maybe at Keeneland in the following weeks, and then go to the Breeders' Cup. That will be a particularly attractive option in 2022 when the Breeders' Cup will be just up the road at Keeneland.

It's usually fairly warm and dry in southern Kentucky in September, so Kentucky Downs may also present an opportunity for European horses that like the firm going, something that is often not available overseas at that time of the year. The layout of the track is another factor that should help European shippers. With its undulations, sweeping turns and long stretch, Kentucky Downs is the closest thing the U.S. has to a typical European race course.

Hammerle understands that there won't be an influx of horses overnight, but he's confident that once a handful come over the word will start to get out and others will follow.

“If we start with one or two coming over and a few people experiencing it, they are going to go back and share their experience with people,” he said. “That can only help us. Maybe in five years or so we can be lucky enough to have, say,10 shippers on a card. If they come over, I can't imagine they'll regret it. Not with the money we have for our purses.”

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Pimlico: Turf Racing Suspended For Track Maintenance

Turf racing at Pimlico Race Course will be suspended from Friday, June 25, through Sunday, June 27, to allow for maintenance of the course.

The Maryland Jockey Club June 24 said the maintenance is needed as a result of the extended meet at Pimlico, which originally was scheduled to end live racing May 31. Pimlico opened a few weeks early in late April and was approved to race through Aug. 22 because of the ongoing dirt surface reconstruction project at Laurel Park.

The MJC said the maintenance will allow the Pimlico turf course to be used through the end of the summer meet in late August.

“We want to do more aeration and fertilization,” said MJC Track Superintendent Chris Bosley, who also oversees the turf courses at Pimlico and Laurel. “We want to be able to confidently say the turf course can hold up until we get back to Laurel (in early September). I think getting off the turf course this weekend will help us out a lot—it's a reasonable goal.”

Four grass races had been scheduled for June 25, both short and long, and two turf races around two turns were carded for June 26. The June 27 program will have seven races, all on dirt. The card for Friday, July 2, will be drawn Sunday, June 27, and MJC officials said they are hopeful the turf course will be ready for use for the weekend of July 2-4.

The MJC also announced a change in training hours at Pimlico from Monday, June 28, through Thursday, July 1, because of the removal and replacement of the temporary tent barns being used to house horses that were relocated from Laurel as well as those that ship in on race day from the Maryland State Fair at Timonium and other facilities in the state and region.

Training hours at Pimlico for all horses on those four days will be 5:00-7:30 a.m. with a break from 7:30-8:00 a.m. Training will resume from 8:00-10:00 a.m. but only for horses stabled on the Pimlico Road side of the property. Gate schooling will be available Wednesday, June 30, and Thursday, July 1, from 6:30-7:30 a.m. and 8:00-9:00 a.m.

Steve Koch, Senior Vice President of Racing for 1/ST RACING (The Stronach Group), said the barn transition project already has begun. The temporary stalls currently on the grounds at Pimlico must be relocated because of a previous commitment, and TSG is sending 140 stalls from Santa Anita Park. The tent structures to house the stalls will come from local companies.

There are currently 120 temporary stalls at Pimlico. The transition process will begin in earnest June 28 with a goal of having all 140 stalls available by July 8. An 18-stall barn behind the old wooden grandstand near the far turn at Pimlico is already being constructed to facilitate the transition.

Koch said he has mapped out a plan to address “the transition in the same footprint without displacing horses.” He said the strategy is to add stalls while removing receiving stalls to accommodate horses and ensure that each race day—currently Friday, Saturday and Sunday—120 stalls are available.

If all of the 140 stalls from Santa Anita Park are usable, there will be 20 more stalls at Pimlico than are currently available. When the first set of temporary stalls were constructed, Gulfstream Park, another TSG property, sent more than enough stall mats to accommodate the number of stalls, Koch said.

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