Ellis Park

Jockey Corey Lanerie will call it a career at the conclusion of the Churchill Downs spring meet Sunday, June 28 following 35 years in the saddle, the track announced Friday. Lanerie will leave the sport having totaled more than 5,000 victories and earning north of $172-million in prize money with at least 1,244 wins at Churchill alone. The mark ties him in second all-time behind Hall of Famer Pat Day, who claims 2,482 trips to the winner's enclosure in the shadow of the Twin Spires. The Louisiana native began his...

The 2026 Ellis Park meet will showcase 18 stakes races worth a record $4.125-million in purses, highlighted by the Ellis Park Summer Showcase Weekend that features seven turf stakes worth a combined $1.75-million, the track announced Monday. Set to run July 2 through Aug. 23, the stakes action kicks off Saturday, July 4 but begins in earnest on Summer Showcase weekend Aug. 1-2. Seven turf stakes are carded for both days with two on Saturday and five on Sunday, led by the $300,000 Green River Island Stakes. Another feature day...

Jockey Johan Rosado has moved his tack from Oaklawn Park to Kentucky, and has started picking up mounts at Churchill Downs, the track announced Friday afternoon. The son of Roberto Rasado, the 1997 Eclipse Award Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, Johan Rosado is represented by Ruben Munoz. He reportedly plans to ride in Kentucky throughout the spring and continue in the summer at Ellis Park. "My father was a jockey for 25 years," Johan Rosado said. "I always looked up to him. I grew up at the racetrack and have a lot...

Purse levels for maiden special weight (MSW) races at Kentucky's two summer meets, Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs, are projected to remain level this year compared to 2025. At Ellis, that means $100,000 per MSW race over the course of a 25-date meet in July and August, and at Kentucky Downs, the MSW purses will be $170,000 over seven dates in August and September. The disclosures were made by representatives of each track at the Apr. 1 meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee. Although MSW purse...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has reached an agreement with Churchill Downs regarding the track's unpaid HISA dues, according to an order posted on HISA's website Tuesday. No specific details of the agreement were made public Tuesday other than that the case has been stayed "until notification from the parties that the conditions of the agreement have been satisfied," according to a joint motion dated March 24, and signed by Charles Scheeler, chair of HISA's board of directors. In that motion, it is also written that "[t]he parties have reached...

Veteran track superintendent Javier Barajas has rejoined Ellis Park Racing & Gaming, returning to a role he previously held in 2020. Barajas most recently served as track superintendent at Canterbury Park from 2023 to 2025 and brings more than four decades of experience in racetrack maintenance. His career has included overseeing surfaces at tracks including Arlington Park, Fair Grounds, Golden Gate Fields Keeneland and Meydan Racecourse. Barajas succeeds Chris Bosley, who served as Ellis Park's track superintendent for the past two years and was promoted to assistant track superintendent at...

Blackout Time (Not This Time), most recently fourth in the GII Rebel Stakes, tuned up for an expected start in the Mar. 28 GI Arkansas Derby with a bullet four-furlong drill in :47.00 (1/90) at Oaklawn Park Saturday. Under retired jockey Robby Albarado, Blackout Time worked with stablemate Gould's Gold, a 5-year-old stakes winner who is entered in the Mar. 21 GIII Essex Handicap. Clockers caught Blackout Time in :24.20 for his opening quarter-mile and galloping out five furlongs in :59.60 and six furlongs in 1:13.40. "Everything is still on...

by Dan Ross and T.D. Thornton The Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority on Wednesday summoned Churchill Downs Racetrack and its corporate parent, CDI, to a hearing before a panel of HISA board members in an attempt to secure payment of 2025 assessment fees that CDI has allegedly failed to submit on behalf of four racetracks the gaming corporation owns in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, including its flagship track in Louisville. HISA wants Churchill to pay $2,408,501 in allegedly overdue 2025 fees (plus $93,998 in interest) to the Authority...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)-related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)'s "pending" and "resolved" cases portals. Among this week's rulings, the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority has issued to Churchill Downs Incorporated four notices for non-payment of its 2025 fees related to federal regulatory oversight of its Churchill Downs, Turfway Park, Ellis Park and Presque Isle Downs racetracks. The matter will...

Earlier this week, Carlo Vaccarezza reported to the BloodHorse that his trainer son, Nick, had been denied stalls at Gulfstream Park for horses owned by his father. Additionally, Carlo Vaccarreza claimed that despite taking steps to remove his name from the stable's limited liability ownership company--effectively shifting ownership of the horses to his son, Michael--track officials told Nick Vaccarezza that they would deny his entries. Carlo Vaccarezza described the action as an act of retaliation for his involvement in the contentious fight to stop the track's owners from decoupling its...

Kelsey Danner probably didn't look at the tote board prior to Thursday's first race at Kentucky Downs. She's not a bettor, she says. But she thought her starter, Repentless (Violence), could run a bit, something the bettors obviously didn't pick up on. They sent the first-time starter off at 25-1. With Adam Beschizza aboard, the colt won by three lengths and paid $52.08. It was not her longest priced winner at the meet. Fellow first-time starter Ground Support (Army Mule) won Saturday's second race for the Danner Stable and paid...

Ellis Park Racing & Gaming closed its 25-day summer season Sunday on a high note, generating $77 million in all-sources handle, a 6% increase over last year's record. "All of us at Ellis Park are truly grateful to both our local community and the broader horse racing community for their incredible support this summer," said Steve Roof, general manager of Ellis Park Racing & Gaming and Owensboro Racing & Gaming. "This shared enthusiasm drives our momentum forward and reinforces Ellis Park as one of the premier summer tracks in the...