The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) unanimously voted at a special meeting Thursday to allow Churchill Downs to shift five “optional” Wednesday race dates from its spring meet to Sept. 1-5 to accommodate the track's coronavirus-related rescheduling of the entire Tuesday-through-Saturday GI Kentucky Derby race week.
The KHRC's approval came after two other Kentucky tracks that have already been granted traditional race dates during that September time block indicated they would be amenable to working out a compromise for the betterment of the entire circuit.
That means Ellis Park will now end its summer season Aug. 30, one week earlier than scheduled.
Ken Mimmack, the head of project development for Ellis Entertainment LLC, the subsidiary that owns Ellis Park, told the KHRC that Ellis would be flexible about how to add the makeup dates while keeping purse levels at or above what the track paid out last year.
“We are considering, certainly, throughout the season, how we would manage adding more days than we have previously been approved for within our schedule,” Mimmack said. “Obviously, the entire situation with the funding of purses and those kinds of things is extremely important to us.”
Kentucky Downs had one date, Wednesday, Sept. 2, that was scheduled during the new Derby week, but management of the all-turf track indicated is also willing to compromise.
“We're happy to help Churchill Downs get through this crazy, crazy time that we're all going through,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' senior vice president and general manager.
Kentucky Downs later posted on Twitter that its Sept. 2 date would be swapped out for Sept. 16 (which had previously had been awarded to Churchill).
The optional Wednesdays that Churchill will be dropping from the spring meet are May 6, 13, 20, 27 and June 3.
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