Turfway Park will increase purses for the seven stakes
races on its schedule from January through March, Director of Racing Tyler
Picklesimer announced Friday. The Northern Kentucky racetrack also will raise
purses for allowance races by $1,500 beginning December 14 and continuing through
the rest of the holiday meet, which ends December 31.
The allowance and stakes purses gain from a surplus in
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) money available to Turfway. The
KTDF portion of the purse is available to horses bred in Kentucky.
“After meeting with the KTDF Advisory Committee on Monday, we learned we would enter the winter/spring meet with a substantial
surplus of KTDF purse funds,” Picklesimer explained. “The committee, the Kentucky
Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, and Turfway together agreed
that the best use of those funds is to reward Kentucky horsemen with an increase
in allowance purses. Increasing our stakes purses benefits the horsemen as well
by offering better purses for their better horses and should increase the
caliber of those races.”
Purses for the Wintergreen, Forego, 96ROCK and Cincinnati
Trophy stakes increase to $60,000 each; $10,000 of each purse derives from the KTDF.
The purse for the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes, a listed
race, returns to $100,000, with $25,000 coming from the KTDF. The purse for the
Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks, a designated points race for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks,
increases to $125,000, again with $25,000 from the KTDF.
The Grade 3 Spiral Stakes, a
designated points race for the Kentucky Derby, retains last year’s purse of
$550,000 with the inclusion of $50,000 in KTDF money.
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