Kentucky Downs

Helicity (The Factor) will be offered via a flash sale by Inglis Digital USA, the auction house announced Friday. A runner-up in a maiden special weight at Saratoga on the grass July 20 to Without Caution (Without Parole {GB}) and third on unveiling June 7 at Gulfstream Park, the colt is currently being pointed toward the Kentucky Downs meeting for his next start by trainer and co-owner Jack Sisterson. Starts in the Sept. 1 $1-million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint or the $1-million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Sept. 8 have both...

The National Thoroughbred League (NTL) will begin its second season with a stop at Kentucky Downs on Sunday, Sept. 1, the track said in a Thursday release. Launched last year, the NTL tour adds a competitive component for its teams based on the outcome of races. At Kentucky Downs, that will involve a five-race sequence culminating in the $500,000 National Thoroughbred League Handicap. There are no nomination, entry or starter fees for the scheduled handicap, though horses must be nominated by Aug. 19, with declarations to be made by Aug....

Kentucky Downs plans to increase purses for nine of its 18 stakes by a total of $3.7 million from what was originally announced, pending regulatory approval, according to a press release from the track early on Thursday morning. Leading the way is the GIII Nashville Derby Invitational, bumped from $2.5 million to $3.1 million. That would make the 1 5/16-mile stakes North America's second-richest race, for Kentucky-breds, behind only the $5 million GI Kentucky Derby among races held at one track. The Nashville Derby already was America's richest turf race...

   The X-Ray Files series, now in its second year and presented in cooperation with the Consignors and Breeders' Association, uses conversations with buyers and sellers to contribute to the discussion on the sales and training process. Joseph O'Brien, the son of legendary trainer Aidan O'Brien, has steadily built up an impressive reputation of his own, first as a jockey with 31 top-level wins worldwide and now as a trainer with Group 1 wins from Ireland to Australia, France, England and the U.S. O'Brien became the youngest jockey to win...

The National Thoroughbred League (NTL) added several key investors to join their roster of team owners, including NBA legend Julius Erving (Philadelphia Stallions) and country music's Tanya Tucker (Nashville Dreams), as the league expands from six franchises to ten ahead of its second season, the operation said in a release on Thursday. This time around the league will boast almost $3 million in prize purses, up from less than $1 million last year. Erving and Tucker join NTL's list of partners, including Nelly, Rick Ross, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Moira Forbes,...

Central Kentucky Riding for Hope (CKRH), a non-profit which offers a variety of equine-assisted therapies and activities for people of all ages, will host its 21st annual gala fundraiser, Night of the Stars, June 22 at Fasig Tipton in Lexington. "Broadway Nights" is the theme of the event, which begins at 6 p.m., and  which includes dinner and drinks, a silent auction and a live auction in which the highest bidders earn a sponsorship of CKRH participants and their equine partners. "Night of the Stars is a meaningful way for...

Headed by the renamed $2.5 million GIII Nashville Derby Aug. 31, Kentucky Downs will stage six races worth at least $2 million apiece, including supplements for registered Kentucky-breds, at this year's seven-day race meet which runs Aug. 29 and 31 and Sept. 1, 5, 7, 8 and 11, the track said in a Wednesday release. The Kentucky Downs condition book features purses scheduled to total $35 million, including $16 million in Kentucky-bred money. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved Kentucky Downs's purse enhancement request from the Kentucky Thoroughbred...

ECL Entertainment and its joint venture partner Clairvest Group have entered into an agreement to purchase Wyoming Downs in Evanston, as well as the track's historic racing locations across Wyoming, the partners announced Monday. The sale is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2024, pending all required regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions. Based in Las Vegas, ECL operates live horse racing and four historic horse racing locations in Kentucky, including the Mint Gaming Hall at Kentucky Downs, as well as charitable gaming locations in New Hampshire...

Kentucky Downs' King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge returns Sept. 7 with a new one-day format and is highlighted by six graded stakes each worth at least $1 million. The $2,500 per-entry buy-in includes $1,500 for the player's bankroll and $1,000 toward the prize pool. Based on 100 entries, the prize pool would be $100,000. The first-place King of the Turf finisher will receive an entry to the 2025 National Horseplayers Championships (NHC) and an entry into the 2024 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC), worth $10,000. In addition, the winner...

Kentucky Downs will host the first Grade I event in its history next year with the elevation of the GI Franklin-Simpson S. announced Saturday by the American Graded Stakes Committee. "Ownership is laser-focused on the continued elevation of the racing product at their track, and we're appreciative of the recognition by the American Graded Stakes Committee," Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' Vice President for Racing, said in a press release Sunday. "As delighted as we are about finally getting a Grade I stakes, it's more about the ascent of our entire...

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday approved a Thoroughbred racing calendar for 2024 that largely mirrors the template that has been in place for the past three seasons. The board's unanimous approval included a conditional "optional dates" placeholder for Ellis Park's July and August calendar that has to be solidified into a three-dates-per-week commitment before the end of this year. The gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), which owns Ellis, Churchill Downs Racetrack, and Turfway Park, had requested additional time to figure out if swapping Fridays for Mondays...

Richard Nicolai, who sold the record-setting sale topper at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale Tuesday, hopes the month ends on another high note in the winner's circle at Keeneland where Secret Money (Good Samaritan) goes postward in the Oct. 27 GIII Valley View S.. Nicolai knew he was sending a good horse through the ring when the weanling son of Good Magic was offered at Fasig-Tipton Tuesday, but the breeder admitted he was surprised when the colt brought a sale-record $230,000 from C F Farm. "I thought he would...