Turfway Park

Like many TDN readers, I use online betting for playing the races. I had used one online site for a few years and felt that I needed another site that offered more "rewards", thus I signed up for DRF.com bets. Nice rewards and free past performances as you accumulate "points." Imagine my surprise to find out that I cannot place bets at Churchill Downs, Turfway, Fairgrounds and any other track that Churchill owns. And I cannot watch online live video either. Now, I don't know what the squabble is between...

Turfway Park will offer 19 stakes races  worth $3.725 million during its upcoming Winter/Spring Meet. The 52-day meeting is headlined by the $700,000 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks, which will be run Mar. 23. Supporting races on the card include the $300,000 TwinSpires Kentucky Cup Classic, the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks--a Road to the Kentucky Oaks Championship Series Race--the $250,000 Animal Kingdom S., the $250,000 Latonia S., and the $250,000 Rushaway S. The Road to the Kentucky Derby's first stop at the Florence oval will be Mar. 2 for the $150,000 John...

Veteran racecaller Tony Calo will be at the mic when the Kentucky racing circuit returns to Turfway Park in Florence Wednesday, Nov. 29. A California native, Calo--best known for his growling 'and there they go' at the break--began his career at Arapahoe Park in Colorado, returning to the Golden State one year later to describe the action at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields. Calo has been the track announcer for the last 15 years at Finger Lakes in upstate New York. He takes over from Jimmy McNerney, who will...

Jockey Abel Cedillo will pack up his tack from Del Mar and move east for the winter to Turfway Park for their meeting that starts Nov. 29. He has every intention of returning to the seaside oval next summer, but says the timing just seemed right to try something new. "I just want to go because I've never gone out of California," Cedillo says. "I'm still young so I don't want to wait until I'm too old to make the move. I'll take my chance right now." Cedillo, who has...

Turfway Park Racing & Gaming and Claiborne Farm have teamed up to present a three-race series which will reward top-three-finishing fillies and mares a future stallion credit when they retire from racing. Dubbed the "Make Your Mare" series, the top three finishers of the Dec. 2 Holiday Inaugural S., Dec. 9 My Charmer S., and Jan. 13 Likely Exchange S. will all receive "Claiborne Credit" on a $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 scale to be applied to future stallion fees. "We're very excited to partner with Claiborne Farm for this series...

The Jockeys' Guild has reached an agreement with the Kentucky HBPA and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association on a mount fee increase effective Nov. 29, which is opening day of the Turfway Park Holiday meet, the organization said in a release Wednesday. The mount fee schedule calls for a minimum fee of $125 at all Kentucky racetracks, including Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Ellis Park, Kentucky Downs and Turfway Park. This agreement also provides for $500 minimum fee in races with purses of $1 million or more. "On behalf of our members who...

Turfway Park purses for maiden special weight (MSW) races are projected to stay level at $70,000, the same as last season. The dovetailed 2023-24 meets that run through March will open Nov. 29. Chip Bach, Turfway's general manager, reported that projection during the Oct. 3 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting. The overall purse structure, Bach said, will also be "similar" to the previous meet "even though we're adding days and races." Bach said Turfway plans on running Wednesdays through Saturdays with a 5:55 p.m. Eastern first post,...

At a time that so plainly demands leadership, where better to come than the desk of John Sikura? A man of notably independent outlook, the owner of Hill 'n' Dale can be relied upon for a perspective that combines candor and detachment with flair and imagination. And those are all assets that appear to be in short supply right now. For while our community's emotional response to the traumas at Saratoga this summer was one of shared horror and grief, the polarization of opinion since has been emotive. Much as...

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) has approved temporary licenses for six Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) properties to begin accepting in-person sports wagers on Thursday, Sept. 7, the company said via a release Wednesday morning. CDI will operate Race and Sports Books at its racetracks and Historical Racing Machine (HRM) facilities in Kentucky which include: Churchill Downs Racetrack: 15 sports betting kiosks, 168 sq. ft. video screen, 20 large format televisions; Derby City Gaming & Hotel: 15 sports betting kiosks, 300 sq. ft. video screen, 12 large format televisions; Ellis...

2nd-CD, $134K, OC, 3yo, f, 6f, 6:28 p.m. A pair of fillies will look to stay unbeaten in their third career starts at Churchill Downs on Friday evening. 'TDN Rising Star' SUNDAY SHOES (Pioneerof the Nile) came from off the pace breaking her maiden sprinting at Turfway Park Feb. 15, then got up by 3/4 of a length in Florence Apr. 1 in the Serena's Song S. over next-out stakes winner Jill Jitterbug (Cross Traffic). The $500,000 Keeneland September Yearling sale purchase trained by Wesley Ward counts among her female...

They know perfectly well, by this stage, that the apostrophe shouldn't be there. They've been asked, and told, about it often enough. But you know what? They're fine with that. They have come round to the view that it fits the horse, that quirky outlying touch; fits their whole story. Because really there's no way they should be here, either. "Every year, 20,000 foals are born," reflects Anthony Sagan. "And only 20 make it to the Derby. But not only did we make it, we were a length off winning...

The colt had been getting a little fractious in the gate and now he half sat down: too low for Jareth Loveberry to climb out, but not low enough to scramble underneath. "Get me out!" the jockey hollered. He was just trying to lift himself clear when his mount came back up and pinned a calf against the steel. The pain was excruciating. It was only five seconds or so before they got the gate open but that was enough, as they stretched him out, for the agony to be...