Ellis Park

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Disarm (Gun Runner), last seen finishing fourth in the GI Kentucky Derby, surged past Verifying (Justify) in the final strides to win the relocated GIII Matt Winn S. at Ellis Park Sunday. Sent off the even-money favorite in the race originally scheduled to be run at Churchill Downs, Disarm rated along the rail within striking distance in third as the lightly raced Bo Cruz (Creative Cause) took the field through fractions of :24.46 and :48.73 over the sloppy going. Verifying, who was tracking the pacesetter throughout, took charge...

3rd-Ellis, $127,000, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 6-10, 3yo, 1m, 1:34.88, ft, 6 1/4 lengths. EXTRA ANEJO (c, 3, Into Mischief--Superioritycomplex {Ire}, by Hard Spun), super on 'TDN Rising Star' debut last October when decimating a Keeneland maiden by 9 1/2 lengths and registering a 92 Beyer Speed Figure, spent the next several months on the bench before reappearing in an optional allowance on Derby Day at Churchill. He broke slowly and may have been a little rusty that day as he was fanned wide and closed late for a length...

The opening months of 2019 were still fresh in California lawmakers' minds when they passed a bill that summer giving the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) emergency authority to suspend racing at a track without the hitherto required 10-day public notice period. The precipitating event, of course, was the spate of equine fatalities that had covered Santa Anita, and the racing industry in general, under a pall of public condemnation--the exact same kind of scrutiny Churchill Downs has faced these past few weeks, culminating with the announced switch of racing...

Earle Mack is right. This industry, which is mired in a crisis, can no longer afford to ignore the most obvious solution to its problems, which are synthetic tracks. Mack wrote just that in an Op/Ed that appeared in this publication last week. If you haven't read it yet, please do so now. It is powerful, articulate and well-reasoned and was written by someone whose credentials demand that we respect his opinion. He is a horse owner, a breeder, a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and a smart and successful...

Dr. Michael "Mick" Peterson, Jr. is the executive director of the independent Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory. He is a mechanical engineer who is widely considered the preeminent track surface specialist in North America. His team has conducted the ongoing testing at Churchill Downs, and it will be tasked this week with being sure Ellis Park is ready to handle a race meet in expedited fashion while also helping out with the continued surface analysis at Churchill. TDN spoke with Peterson early Friday evening in the wake of the 12 horse...

Reeling from a rash of breakdowns that has developed into what can only be described as a crisis for the track and for the entire sport, track management at Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) announced Friday that racing will be suspended at Churchill after Sunday's card and that the remainder of the scheduled meet will be run at Ellis Park. The first day of racing at Ellis will be held on June 10. The Churchill-at-Ellis meet will end on July 3. Racing at Churchill will be held as scheduled this Saturday...

Large purses and four new stakes events will highlight the 2023 Ellis Park Racing & Gaming $3.075-million stakes calendar. The Ellis Park meet will open Friday, July 7 and run through Sunday, Aug. 27. The stakes program has been increased by $1.65 million since 2022 (all prize money includes funds distributed by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund and is pending approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission). There are four new stakes events on the calendar, including the $300,000 GIII Pucker Up S., which was previously run at Arlington Park...

Purse levels for maiden special weight (MSW) races on the Kentucky circuit have been projected for the summer meets at Ellis Park ($70,000 through 24 dates in July and August) and Kentucky Downs ($150,000 for seven days in September). Those figures were disclosed by representatives of those tracks Wednesday during a meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee. The projected Ellis MSW purses will be a boost from the $60,000 offered in 2022. Kentucky Downs will remain year-over-year level at $150,000 after last bumping up MSW purses...

With undefeated phenom Flightline (Tapit) and sophomore star Epicenter (Not This Time) headlining a respectably deep GI Breeders' Cup Classic, one oft-repeated quip is that 2022 is turning out to be "a tough year to have a good horse" aiming for a divisional championship. Yet a few rungs farther down the class ladder--more than a few, in truth--a blue-collar starter-allowance stalwart is tweaking that phrase so it better suits his grind-it-out style, proving that '22 is actually "a good year to have a tough horse." Last week at Churchill Downs,...

The pending sale of Ellis Park to the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), cleared a necessary regulatory hurdle Tuesday when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) swiftly approved the transaction by a unanimous voice vote. The KHRC members in attendance at the "special" meeting greenlighted the $79-million transaction in just 6 ½ minutes after a perfunctory read-through of the basic terms of the deal and a statement that the commission expects CDI to follow through with development projects that had been agreed to by the outgoing owner, which is...

Churchill Downs Incorporated announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ellis Park Racing & Gaming in Henderson, Kentucky, from Enchantment Holdings, LLC, an affiliate of Laguna Development Corporation, for total consideration of $79 million in cash, subject to certain working capital and other purchase price adjustments. CDI will also assume Ellis Park's opportunity to construct a track extension facility in Owensboro, Kentucky. "This is an exciting announcement for the horse racing industry, the cities of Henderson and Owensboro, and the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky," said Kentucky Governor...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 2nd-Ellis Park, $60k, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 2:18 p.m. ET WinStar Farm and CMNWLTH's PENSACOLA (Into Mischief) opens his career for trainer Rodolphe Brisset. The bay colt was acquired for $600,000 following a :10 1/5 work at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale earlier this year. He is a son of stakes winner Stormy Regatta (Midshipman) and a half to stakes winner Bay Storm (Kantharos). Also debuting is AMO Racing's Hurricane J (Nyquist), a $330,000 KEESEP yearling trained by Paulo Lobo. He is a half to Grade...