Big names, large purses as Ellis meet opens
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With a heat dome descending on Kentucky this week, Ellis Park begins its 25-day stand Thursday. The track opens with a special Fourth of July weekend celebration this Thursday through Sunday before settling into its regular Friday-Sunday schedule through Aug. 23.
Although some riders, including the Ortiz brothers, will decamp to Saratoga following the Churchill Downs meet, a strong jockey colony is set to remain in Henderson, Ky., supported by plenty of good horses forming local divisions for top barns. They are all lured not only by a meet-record $4.125 million in total stakes purses for 18 races, but by robust daily purses that have become a hallmark of the Kentucky circuit.
Returning riders to the jockey colony include Axel Concepcion, Florent Geroux, Mario Gutierrez, Brian Hernandez Jr., Luan Machado, Edgar Morales, Cristian Torres, and Jaime Torres. Newcomers include Ben Curtis and Danny Sheehy, along with teenage sensation Yedsit Hazlewood, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice last year.
Hazlewood, 18, comes into this meet red hot, as he won five races Sunday to claim Laurel Park’s spring title. He narrowly leads the nation in wins with 184 entering this week, five more than Irad Ortiz Jr.
Steve Asmussen will maintain a local string to defend his Ellis training title against familiar peers Brad Cox, Brian Lynch, Mike Maker, Kenny McPeek, Joe Sharp – fresh off his second consecutive Churchill spring title – and Brendan Walsh. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert also is expected to have a strong presence at the meet with a full barn of horses based at Churchill Downs.
Baffert will get started with two entrants on the Sunday program in graded stakes-placed filly French Blue in an allowance and Embry Show in a maiden race. Baffert has not had a starter at Ellis since 2005.
The stakes schedule gets underway opening weekend with a pair of 3-year-old turf sprints, the $175,000 Dade Park Dash on the Fourth of July and the $175,000 Pea Patch on July 5. The majority of the stakes are clustered around two weekends of the season.
Ellis Park Summer Showcase Weekend from July 31-Aug. 2 features seven turf stakes worth a combined $1.75 million – the $300,000 Green River Island, $250,000 Pucker Up, $250,000 Sunkissed, $250,000 Tri-State Turf Sprint, $250,000 Hummingbird, $250,000 Water Tower, and $200,000 Riverside Rush. Although the stakes have been rebranded, this is the weekend that will provide a springboard for locals into stakes in the same divisions at the rich Kentucky Downs meet, set for Aug. 29-Sept. 9.
The $400,000 Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9 highlights a card with six stakes worth $1.5 million. It is joined by the $200,000 Groupie Doll, $250,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, $250,000 Ellis Park Debutante, $200,000 Audubon Oaks, and $200,000 R.A. “Cowboy” Jones Memorial.
Rounding out the stakes action are the $175,000 Jeff Hall Memorial on July 18, the $175,000 Twin Bridges on July 19, and the $175,000 Ellis Park Turf on Aug. 23.
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The Juvenile and Debutante highlight what has become a good 2-year-old program at Ellis, with a number of barns choosing to separate their divisions, leaving some youngsters to pursue rich purses locally rather than shipping to Saratoga or other tracks. Last year alone, horses who passed through Ellis Park as juveniles included eventual graded stakes winners Alpyland, Fulleffort, Incredibolt, and On Time Girl; stakes winners Search Party and Street Beast; and Grade 1-placed Blackout Time and Honey Dutch.
Twice in the last 10 editions, the Ellis Park Juvenile winner has gone on to make the following year’s Kentucky Derby. Lookin At Lee finished second in the 2017 Derby and went on to win additional stakes and retire as a millionaire. Owen Almighty went on to win the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby after taking the 2024 Juvenile and was a creditable fifth in the 2025 Kentucky Derby. He is since multiple graded stakes-placed, including a second in the Grade 3 Hanshin on Sunday at Churchill Downs.
Serengeti Empress, winner of the 2018 Debutante, took the 2019 Kentucky Oaks among her multiple Grade 1 triumphs. The 2020 Debutante was won by Crazy Beautiful, a multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire.
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