Mike and Laurie McAbee from the Dallas space fulfilled their bucket-list merchandise of attending a race day at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 1. They stated the expertise exceeded expectations.
“It is the ambiance. It is the mix of down-home pleasant, Kentucky pleasant, but it surely’s additionally a number of the finest horses within the nation,” Mike McAbee stated. “While you’re an enormous racing fan, to see the horses and the folks up this shut, this is a chance you do not get wherever else. We’ll be again, positively.”
Whether or not folks attended in particular person or watched and wagered at simulcast retailers or on-line accounts, Kentucky Downs’ recognition stored up its progress.
Kentucky Downs’ seven-day meet that ended Wednesday once more set data for wagering and purses paid out to horse house owners for the twelfth straight yr.Â
Purses totaled $34,624,472 for 76 races, together with $13.6 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Improvement Fund obtainable solely to registered Kentucky-bred thoroughbreds. That displays a rise of 38 % over final yr’s complete purses of $25.06 million paid out for 76 races. Sixteen of the 18 stakes-winners have been foaled in Kentucky, taking full benefit of the KTDF funding.
All-sources wagering totaled $90,181,408, up 8 % over final yr’s $83,640,261. Within the six meets with the possession group headed by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone on the helm, complete betting has elevated 148 %. Whereas that displays going from 5 days in 2018 to the present seven days, the per-day common has gone from $7.28 million for 5 days to the $12.88 million every day common this yr.
The signature Saturday Sept. 7 card—this yr packaged because the FanDuel TV U.S. Open Turf Championships that includes six graded stakes paying out $2 million apiece to Kentucky-breds and $1 million to others—attracted track-record betting of $21,184,941.
The typical subject measurement was 10.89, horses per race, up from the ten.42 final yr that led America, and Kentucky Downs’ highest common since 2019.
“We’re extraordinarily pleased with the outcomes of the meet,” stated Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ Vice President for Racing. “We proceed to see optimistic progress in each metric we have a look at, and l am already excited for subsequent yr’s meet.”
Worldwide star Frankie Dettori, using for the primary time at Kentucky Downs, received eight races, one fewer than meet-leaders Irad Ortiz Jr. and Tyler Gaffalione. 4 of these have been stakes, together with the meet’s new signature race the $3.1 million DK Horse Nashville Derby on British invader Bellum Justum and sweeping the pair of closing-day stakes. That ballooned his mounts’ earnings to $3.86 million, topped solely by Ortiz’s $4.1 million.
“Pay attention, it is superb,” Dettori stated in the course of the meet. “There’s a terrific incentive to the house owners, a terrific incentive to the European horses to return over. Nice incentive for the turf horses in America to race for this type of cash. … I’m very professional what they’ve carried out right here at Kentucky Downs.”
Kentucky Downs’ profitable house owners have stated for years that the large purses give them extra bankroll to reinvest on the Keeneland September yearling sale. Horsemen say the observe is making turf pedigrees extra standard.
“Grass horses are positively extra interesting now,” stated coach Saffie Joseph Jr. “With Kentucky Downs’ purses, it may possibly make the horse’s profession. … It is an enormous plus.”
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