Kentucky Downs

Edited Press Release Kentucky Downs and the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) have reached a simulcast agreement that will allow NYRA, its affiliated racetracks and its online betting platform NYRA Bets to accept wagers on Kentucky Downs' six-date meet that begins Sunday. "We are grateful and appreciative of NYRA management for this amicable resolution and delighted that all NYRA outlets will be able to wager on Kentucky Downs," said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' Vice President for Racing. The agreement also means horseplayers betting on-site at any Kentucky track will...

Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato give their best bet for each day of racing during the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs. $100 Win/Place format; highest bankroll at the end wins. Steve Sherack: Race 2 - Don't think we'll see anything near the 20-1 morning-line quote, but Gamble's Orb can certainly run this field off their heels at a price in her grass debut. She flashed big speed in her first two goes in the Gulfstream slop, dueling and finishing a close second June 25, then dueling and tiring to a well-beaten...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency HALF TO BOBBY'S KITTEN DEBUTS IN KY 2nd-KYD, $135K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:53 p.m. Joe Sharp unveils MISTHAVEN (IRE) (Candy Ride {Arg}) in this first baby race of this boutique meet. SF Bloodstock purchased Celestial Woods (Forestry) for $350,000 with this filly in utero at the 2018 FTKNOV sale. She is also the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner and millionaire Bobby's Kitten (Kitten's Joy) and MGSW Camelot Kitten (Kitten's Joy). TJCIS PPs PLETCHER UNVEILS PRICEY CLASSIC EMPIRE FILLY AT THE...

FRANKLIN, Ky. - With huge purses offered during a mighty short season all run over a distinctive European-style turf course, the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs has emerged as a gem of American racing. It's different, to be sure. Once an obscure little meet quietly contested at a track called Dueling Grounds in a small town on the border with Tennessee, much closer to Nashville than Kentucky's big cities, Louisville and Lexington, it has flourished, gotten noticed and embraced. This year it features six graded stakes, three of them with...

Ron Winchell joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss the approaching race meet at Kentucky Downs and relive some of his favorite moments with Grade I winners Gun Runner and Summerly.

One of the great success stories in American racing over the last decade or so has been the emergence of Kentucky Downs, which opens its 2021 six-day meet on Sunday. Much of that has to do with the stewardship on Ron Winchell, who, along with partner Marc Falcone, purchased the track in 2019. Thanks in large part to Historical Horse Racing machines, Kentucky Downs was already making plenty of money when Winchell and Falcone took over, but they never grew complacent. Rather, they have continually looked to make Kentucky Downs...

With Kentucky Downs and FanDuel entering into a three-year partnership, the upcoming six-day meet at Kentucky Downs has been renamed the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs. Located near the Kentucky and Tennessee border, Kentucky Downs offers only turf racing with some of the biggest purses in America. FanDuel, a sports-tech entertainment company, is the parent company of TVG. Included among the changes brought about by the partnership are TVG becoming the official Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) platform for Kentucky Downs; racing from the track airing exclusively on TVG for network...

Kentucky Downs will increase purses 8% in non-stakes races for the upcoming September meet from what was announced previously in the condition book. Maiden special weights for Kentucky-breds will now have purses of $135,000; first-level allowances are set at $145,800; and second-level allowances at $156,600. The increase applies to every non-stakes race at the meet except the four starter-allowances carrying $100,000 purses as qualifiers for the Claiming Crown later this year at Gulfstream Park. "Not everybody has stakes horses, and Kentucky Downs gives those owners an opportunity to run for...

Projected purse levels for maiden special weight (MSW) races on the Kentucky circuit in September and October will be $135,000 at Kentucky Downs, $125,000 at Churchill Downs, and $78,000 at Keeneland Race Course. Those figures were revealed by representatives of those respective tracks Tuesday during a video meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee. Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' senior vice president and general manager, also said that his all-turf venue will also be raising non-stakes purses across the board by 8% from the amounts that were initially...

It's easy to see why so many top American stables have made a point of circling the Kentucky Downs meet on their calendars. It mainly comes down to the money. During the unique European-style six-day meet, $10 million alone will be paid out in stakes purses, there are three $1 million races, maiden races go for $125,000 and the purses for allowance races range from $135,000 to $145,000. This year, Chad Brown will be there and so will Wesley Ward, Brad Cox, Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen and many other top...

Reserved seating for the elite six-day all-turf meeting at Kentucky Downs in September is now available on the track's website. Kentucky Downs will be back to full capacity for live racing at the meet, which runs Sept. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12, with its most upscale option yet for reserved seating and dining and the return of free general admission. New to the track's accomodations will be the VIP Chalet, a glass-enclosed, air-conditioned facility with an outdoor terrace providing a spectacular view of the race course and located...

Average daily purses are expected to top $350,000 at this summer's Ellis Park meeting, highest in the track's 99-year history, according to racing secretary Dan Bork. Bork said purses for maiden races will likely top the record $50,000 achieved in 2019 before the pandemic forced cutbacks last year in the wake of a three-month shutdown. Those numbers include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements. Ellis Park released its 2021 stakes schedule Sunday. The schedule features 14 stakes races and the Henderson track has expanded its Kentucky Downs Preview Day to an...