Kentucky Downs keeps on growing, but it has its limits

The annual, all-turf racing festival that defines boutique arrived last week at Kentucky Downs. It is a meet made up of seven racing days in a meadow just walking distance from the Tennessee state line.

By the middle of next week, the racing will be gone for another 11 1/2 months, vanishing faster than a summer fling. Kentucky Downs may be the epitome of less is more, but as Frasier Crane said, “If less is more, just think of how much more ‘more’ would be.”
“I get asked the question all the time. ‘Why don’t you guys race more race days?’ ” said Ted Nicholson, who is in his ninth year as the track’s vice president of racing.

What began in April 1990 as a single, four-race card that attracted barely a quarter-million dollars in bets has grown into these seven summer days that last summer generated a record $80 million in handle. This year’s big day comes Saturday with a card highlighted by six races worth at least $1 million each. Four are Grade 2s, two are Grade 3s. The $1.7 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G2) will qualify the victor for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and the $1 million Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint (G2) is a win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. The limit on how big the meet can get is not simply about Ellis Park and Churchill Downs having dibs on the dates before and after Kentucky Downs. More important is the fact that there is only so much wear and tear the Simpson County grass can take. It is not like track superintendent Butch Lehr can take races off the turf.

“It’s a safety issue more than anything else,” Nicholson said. “I’ve got about a 15-day to 16-day window to run our races. I don’t want to run any more days just based on the fact that I want to make sure that our turf course is safe. When you run 75 races over a turf course, it gets beat on.”

It is that tug of war between stretching the limits of Mother Nature and maximizing a product growing in popularity.

“You don’t want it to be a ‘dirf’ course,” said Nicholson, who did his undergrad work at Arizona State before he enrolled in the University of Arizona racetrack-industry program. “When I went to college, everyone referred to Turf Paradise as ‘Dirf’ Paradise.”

Green truly is the big resource at Kentucky Downs. Not just grass but money, too. The track is co-owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds boss Ron Winchell and casino entrepreneur Marc Falcone, both of whom live in Las Vegas. Their Kentucky Racing Acquisition partnership doubled down on their 2019 investment in the track property by expanding the on-site casino and building an adjacent hotel that opened six weeks ago. The casino’s raison d’être was established in 2011 with historical horse-racing machines, which have been a financial boon for Kentucky’s racetrack purses and breeding industry. Just at the Mint Gaming Hall casino next to the track, the machines take in more than $1 billion a year.

“All we’ve seen is elevation every year,” Nicholson said. “If I was a bull-market investor, I would think Kentucky Downs would have been something that everybody would have wanted to watch and invest in, if you use the analogy of the stock market. Over the course of the last nine years, it’s been a positive every single year.”

The HHR revenue led directly to a spike in purses at Kentucky Downs. Five years ago the track did not have any $1 million races. This year, with Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund rewards for state-bred horses, there were 11 written into the condition book. The $24 million in purses during the racing fortnight have brought Kentucky Downs a long way from 26 years ago, when the track then known as Dueling Grounds was sold out of bankruptcy for less than half that total.

“What they’ve done is amazing,” said trainer Kenny McPeek, whose 32 career wins at the track include Sunday’s Dueling Grounds Oaks victory with Freydis the Red. “The purses obviously make it extra attractive to come.”

“The money is the richest you can find in probably any part of the world,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., whose eight non-stakes starters at the current meet have netted him two wins with purse earnings of $359,589. “It’s good racing, it’s a fun atmosphere, they put on a good show for you, and they take good care of you.”

With the bigger purses have come bigger fields averaging 11 horses per race this summer. In turn, handle keeps rising.

“It’s been a positive every single year,” Nicholson said. “Some years were up 25 percent. Some years were up 35 percent. It might be 15 percent, but we’re up, and it’s always a positive.”

Even so, Kentucky Downs management raised takeout 1 percentage point across the board this year, and that led to some social-media blowback that may yet be felt on the bottom line. One challenge for Kentucky tracks getting state subsidies from other forms of gaming is that their share of the money has to be used for purses. Nicholson said that and a first-time due bill from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority were the reasons for raising takeout to cover those non-racing expenses. Even though the blended takeout rate at Kentucky Downs remains lower than the major tracks operated by Churchill Downs Inc., 1/ST Racing and the New York Racing Association, Nicholson understood any increase would be hard to stomach for some horseplayers.

“That’s why we struggled to make the decision,” he said.

At the same time, Nicholson said most of what he hears is upbeat.

“I get so much positive feedback,” he said. “Not only from the bettors, but the horsemen are really thrilled to be here, and they notice all the changes that we make.”

No, a big grandstand will not be rising anytime soon. Instead, the Kentucky Downs vibe still is one of tailgating at the racetrack. The VIP tent area near the finish line feels at times like a well-heeled day watching polo.

“When people come here for the first time, they can’t help but give you a wow, because it’s so different,” Nicholson said. “It looks different on television, but that’s like saying Wrigley Field is different than (the) White Sox’ park. They are different, but when you walk inside and see that green ivy, you see the neighbors being able to see from the rooftops, it’s a wow. It’s different from watching it on television. It’s the same thing here.”

The teardrop oval with the uphill backstretch, the downhill far turn and the homestretch that has a Longchamp-style, false straight are the permanent points of interest.

“It’s just a very unique place to race horses,” McPeek said. “I’ve raced there since the beginning. … It’s a cool spot. It’s kind of a throwback, Euro-type course, and a lot of interesting stuff can happen down there. Some horses love it, and some horses don’t.”

Joseph, who has sent horses to Kentucky Downs every year since the COVID summer of 2020, said the unique nature of the venue was a lure for him. It was not just the money.

“There’s big purses in New York and big purses at Keeneland and Churchill,” he said. “There are big purses everywhere right now. I think it’s just that Kentucky Downs has a different feel.”

The creature comforts on the Kentucky-Tennessee line are not the same as the old-fashioned appointments at Saratoga or the modern trappings at Del Mar. The jockeys room is a double-wide trailer. Right next to it is a simple, three-story, wooden building where track executives, stewards, placing judges and the media do their work. It was augmented this year by a viewing perch reserved for owners and trainers just a short walk from the paddock. Asphalt paths were poured where gravel had been under foot.

“You don’t want to overreach,” Nicholson said. “We try to do something simple every year as far as an improvement, whether it’s on the guest-service side or on the horsemen’s side. We really concentrated this year on the horsemen’s side, because the guest side was taken care of by finally having a beautiful hotel open at the eighth pole.”

With big purses, big fields and, albeit 1 percent higher, competitive takeout, Kentucky Downs executives might be tempted to reach beyond their grasp with some improvements. Not, however, when it comes to building the prestige of their races.

“When I got here I think we had one graded race. It was a Grade 3,” Nicholson said. “Now we have nine. I would hope after this year we would have even more, and that’s all driven through the purses.”

If there is a goal within immediate reach for Kentucky Downs, it is the anointment of at least one of its races as a Grade 1.

“Honestly, I’m constantly trying to get us attention,” Nicholson said. “In that vein, hopefully it happens.”

-Courtesy of Horse Racing Nation