Turfway opens fall meet with reduced
stakes schedule
Turfway Park’s 50th anniversary celebration begins with the opening of the fall meet on Wednesday.
Post time is 7 p.m. (EDT) Wednesday-Friday, and 1:10 p.m. on Saturdays and
Sundays. The 22-day stand will run through October 8, and the “Kentucky Cup Day
of Champions” program on September 26 is once again the main event.
The Florence, Kentucky, track has felt the sting
of economic cutbacks. The Kentucky Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Cup Juvenile
Fillies were dropped from this year’s 16th running of the Kentucky Cup series.
Neither the Weekend Delight S., which traces back to 1989, and Marfa S., which was
inaugurated in 1986, will be renewed during the fall meet.
The purse of the Kentucky Cup Classic (G2), won by notables such as Silver
Charm, Thunder Gulch, Tabasco Cat, Hard Spun, Roses in May, Perfect Drift and
Captain Steve, was slashed from $350,000 to $200,000.
“The cuts allow us to redirect funds to daily
purses,” Turfway President Robert Elliston explained. “It is difficult to to set
aside decades of tradition, but the cuts were inevitable given our inability to
match purses offered by surrounding states that support their racing industries
with gaming revenue.”
That leaves only four stakes during the fall meet. The $100,000 Turfway Park
Fall Championship S. (G3), a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at 1 1/2 miles,
will be run Saturday. The $100,000 Kentucky Cup Distaff (G3) and
$100,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint (G3) round out the stakes schedule.
Turfway’s simulcast signal will be available on
all the major account-wagering services.
As part of its 50th celebration, Turfway Park has launched
an interactive project highlighting 50 accomplished horses that have raced at
the track since it opened in 1959.
The Top 50 Horses list was compiled by former local turf writers Jack Hicks
and Jack Murray, current Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Richard Skinner,
track historian Dr. James Claypool, track president Robert Elliston, track
announcer Mike Battaglia and Turfway’s racing secretary, Rick Leigh.
The project team chose but did not rank its Top 10 horses and then ranked the
remaining 40. Fans are invited to weigh in by rating the team’s top 10 or
arguing for their own picks. All 50 horses’ career stats, the poll, and the
related blog, Turfway Talkback, are available at
Among the team’s Top 10 are Alysheba and Point Given, both voted Horse of the
Year, and Marfa, the first Jim Beam S. (now Lane’s End S. [G2]) winner to bring
national attention to Turfway’s Kentucky Derby (G1) prep.
Fans also are invited to contribute memories of horses that would comprise a
different kind of “top” list for Turfway: hard-knocking, blue-collar horses
whose fan base is mostly local or regional. The undisputed king of that list is
likely Perennial, who made 216 starts before retiring in 1982 at age 15. Of his
46 wins, 31 came at Turfway (then Latonia).
The track’s website also offers a nine-minute video about the history of
Turfway and links to other video memories posted at YouTube. Fans are invited to
reminisce about their experiences at the track, also via Turfway Talkback.