Horse Racing: Turfway Park Cuts down on races
In what is becoming a disturbing trend, Turfway Park is the latest to join the ranks of tracks cutting down on races. Turfway Park submitted a request to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to cut four Wednesday cards and all of stakes races, except one, as per President Robert N. Elliston’s statement yesterday.
The commission would deliberate on the matter within two weeks, on the 20th of July.
Elliston said that Turfway was forced to make deep cuts in their racing schedule in an attempt to be able to stay on the daily purse average for last fall. He said that to maximize their field size they had to cut racing dates. “And we are not alone,” he said. Churchill Downs, he added had also reduced their schedule by a day to four instead of five during their spring meet. The Average field size at Churchill Downs fell below eight. Making further comparisons, Elliston said that Keeneland also had to reduce their purse by over a million dollars, dropping two graded stakes.
Churchill Downs, Ellis Park and Turfway combined have cut about of a fourth of the race meets. Horse Racing in Kentucky is struggling to compete with neighbouring states of Ohio and New York, where gaming interests have made inroads into horse racing, keeping the sport afloat. In Ohio two bankrupt racetracks were acquired by casinos and in New York, as well, Video Lottery Terminals are to be added to racetracks to generate added revenue. Saratoga was saved by a 25 million dollars loan from the State of New York and Racing is being subsidized in Indiana.
Kentucky is having a very hard time keeping up them. With their deeper pockets, they can have large purses, which consequently attract more horses and with more horses there is more betting, which means the tracks can have larger purses again. Take away any part of the equation and the cycle begins to break down, as it has for Kentucky Racing and so, Turfway Park is trying to reduce the number of days to keep daily purses high enough to keep a full field for racing days.
The cuts include the remaining Kentucky Cup Day of Champion races. The three races which survived last year’s cut, The Classic, The Distaff and The Sprint, combined added to a total of 400,000 dollars in purse last year.
There is no good news for the Horse Owners. Ken Ramsey, owner of the horse that won last year’s Classic (apparently the last Kentucky Cup Classic winner there ever would be) was visibly disappointed. Ken was horrified that the races were cut. “What is there to look forward to?” he said as he complained that it is has become difficult for horse owners of any size to continue to make a living. “The horses I was running up there for $7,500 or $10,000 at Churchill Downs, what am I going to do with them?” he said.
That decision didn’t come easily for Turfway either. The Kentucky cup was the Jewel in the crown for Turfway and having to slash that is a major blow to them. President Elliston said that he was “especially disappointed” at having to drop the Kentucky Cup Day of Champion races. He said that if circumstances permit, the Kentucky Cup would be one of the first races Turfway Park restores.
Elliston took the opportunity to highlight the disadvantage the state of Kentucky has in Horse Racing. He suggested that if the Kentucky state legislature would make the kind of concessions, Indiana, Ohio and New York have made allowing them to “enhance their purses with gaming revenue,” Turfway Park wouldn’t need to cut races and could even begin restoring lost races. Elliston said that the gaming revenue changed the whole game. “We find ourselves having to maintain a level that's not even competitive, honestly.”
The track has requested the Kentucky Racing Commission to allow it to run Thursdays through Sundays, excluding Wednesdays from now on, starting September 9 till October 3, a total of 16 days as opposed to last year's 20. The only remaining stakes race is the Turfway Park Fall Championship with a 100,000 purse.
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