Blink and you might miss it. But before the seven-day Kentucky Downs racing season comes to a halt on Sept. 10, the track, buoyed by the lucrative onsite Mint Gaming Hall, will have given away stacks of cash.
Stacks upon stacks upon stacks. Thursday’s opening-day program comprises 11 races. Total purses, including hefty Kentucky-bred supplements, come in at $2,480,000.
And that’s just getting the ball rolling.
Thursday’s feature, the restricted Tapit Stakes, offers a $500,000 purse. Save for the $500,000 One Dreamer, the Tapit’s sister race, the rest of the stakes schedule includes races worth $1 million and more – 16 such races. A purse bump has the Nashville Derby worth $3.5 million, making it the richest North American grass race outside the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
:: Kentucky Downs Package Available Now - Get All Access PPs and more for just $20!
The ridiculously high purse for a race in a marginal division comes as part of a Kentucky Downs push to attract European entrants. England-based Bellum Justum won the 2024 Nashville Derby but is one of only a handful of overseas shippers – at least those not on a one-way ticket – to race at recent meets. And despite its trove of riches, the Nashville Derby drew just one overseas nominee, Wimbledon Hawkeye. The upper-echelon English colt is expected to run in one of five stakes on the Aug. 30 card, the second program of the meeting.
The meet’s other race days are Aug. 31, Sept. 4, Sept. 6, Sept. 7, and Sept. 10. First post on Aug. 30 is 11:25 a.m. Central, while first post on Sept. 6 is 11:30. The other cards start at 12:25 p.m. The meet’s biggest day, Sept. 6, includes six stakes, among them the $2.5 million Kentucky Turf Cup, with total purses of $14 million.
Kentucky Downs – on the fringes of Franklin, Ky. (pop. roughly 10,000), the Tennessee state line a couple hundred yards from the three-furlong marker – cards all races on a European-style course, irregularly shaped and undulating. It will feel more familiar to Wimbledon Hawkeye than the Americans racing over it, bar those who already have made the trip. That number will be significant, especially in stakes, as the track expects 10 2024 stakes winners to return this season.
Maiden races, worth $170,000, are plentiful – four or five per day. Contests up to one mile and 70 yards start on the backstretch, while races at 1 5/16 and 1 1/2 miles begin in front of the minimal grandstand. It can be difficult, for fans and even track announcer Michael Wrona, to track the action over the expansive course, but Kentucky Downs has improved its televised product, deploying a drone camera, a cable camera, and additional cameras outside the course’s far turn. Overseas broadcasters Nick Luck and Jess Stafford join American on-air talent this season, and NBC will broadcast two hours of the Aug. 30 card.
New this year is a GPS timing system blended with StrideSAFE, which uses sensors to track race biometrics. Times mean more than they once did at Kentucky Downs, which drastically shortened its once extremely long run-ups, the distance from the starting gate to the beginning of timing.
:: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!
The track added a $1 pick six to a menu that on opening day includes three pick fives. Multi-race payouts can explode at a venue where chaos sometimes rules – and large fields are the rule. Kentucky Downs last season averaged 10.8 starters per race.
Tyler Gaffalione tries for a fifth riding title after tying for meet honors last year with Irad Ortiz Jr., who ships from New York for specific cards. His brother Jose Ortiz says he’s riding the entire meet. Expect plenty of runners from Steve Asmussen, Joe Sharp, and Brendan Walsh, tri-leading trainers in 2024.
Californians performed well last year. Goliad won two stakes, Ag Bullet one, and both are expected to return. Another Californian, Nineeleventurbo, has unfinished business in the Tapit, carded for one mile and 70 yards and restricted to horses lacking a 2025 stakes win.
Trained by Neil Drysdale, Nineeleventurbo set the pace and lost by a head in last year’s Tapit, and no handicapping marker carries more weight at Kentucky Downs than proven form over the course. Moreover, Nineeleventurbo never leads, runs better with a target, and despite being taken out of his game, fought back when challenged late by victorious Irish Aces. The morning line on this horse is set at an implausible 12-1. Expect something more like 9-2 as Nineeleventurbo makes his second start of the season following a solid comeback run in the Wickerr at Del Mar.
Lagynos, a maiden winner over the course two years ago, would rate as good a chance as Nineeleventurbo had he not drawn post 14. Mountain Bear starts for the first time since being gelded and had a troubled trip last out in the Grade 3 Kelso, but he hasn’t won since October 2023 and trainer Wesley Ward has gone 1 for 18 in stakes over the last five Kentucky Downs meets.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.