Despite being inundated with a record amount of rainfall in the month of July, Ellis Park posted a 9.23% increase in total handle over the 2015 meet, which concluded Monday. On-site handle showed a small decline of 3.6%, likely due to weather conditions that forced a cancellation of the popular July 4 card and a number of other races later in the month.
“From my standpoint, the racing was the best since I've been here–by far,” said racing secretary Dan Bork, completing his 10th year at the track. “We had more quality with the 2-year-olds and older horses and had some really great races. It just shows you what can happen if we have the right purse structure. It was by far the best jockey colony, best trainers we've had here.”
With Kentucky Downs contributing $1.35 million to Ellis' purse account and the increasing money generated from historical horse racing gaming terminals, purses were up 25 percent to average $197,000 a day.
“Clearly we're on an upward trend,” said Ellis Park president Ron Geary. “You look at the trainers we attracted, the riders here, great purse money, great horses and a lot of horses per race. We've got four or five horses that could wind up in the Kentucky Derby who ran here. Showing the quality of the racing at Ellis, four of the 10 winners running for the record purses on Kentucky Downs' opening card made their prior start here.”
Corey Lanerie topped the jockey standings at the 2016 meet with 26 winners, while Steve Asmussen took home the trainer's title with 16 winners.
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