Bigger purses attract European runners for this year

It’s raining money in little Franklin, Ky., population 10,000, situated not especially close to anything.

Thanks to a casino, the Mint Gaming Hall, humming away on the property, the astronomical purses Kentucky Downs offered the last several years somehow have grown even higher for 2024. The track intends to pay out roughly $37 million during a seven-day meeting that begins Thursday.

A stakes-heavy schedule includes seven races worth at least $2 million, eight more with purses of at least $1 million. Those numbers include prize money available only to Kentucky-breds, but no matter where a horse is bred, the animal’s connections won’t find richer everyday racing anywhere in the world.

Betting has trended accordingly, average daily handle during the 2023 meeting about $12 million, that despite threats of a boycott resulting from a modest takeout hike track officials said was required to cover expenses related to the introduction of HISA. Turns out it’s difficult for American horseplayers accustomed to combing through six-horse fields, trying to unearth just a touch of value, to resist betting on a meet that has averaged more than 10 starters per race the last three years.

While that number dipped slightly to 10.4 last year from 10.6 in 2022, it’s hard to imagine the total number of runners not going up again this season, not with the vast trove of riches on offer. Thursday’s 11-race card, highlighted by the $500,000 Tapit, has eight races with full or overflow fields, while the other three races drew nine, 10, and 11 entrants.

Kentucky Downs, a 1 5/16-mile circuit that is anything but a standard oval, offers an American audience a European racing experience, an all-turf meeting on a course with not two but three turns, undulations all over the track, and even an uphill finish with a short dogleg just before the wire. One would think European horses should be coming en masse to plunder these purses – and, finally, they are.

For 2024, the track hired the England-based International Racing Bureau to recruit overseas runners. Six such horses arrived late last week, including Stromberg and Bellum Justum for Saturday’s Nashville Derby, and more are coming, including Ancient Rome, who won the 2023 Mint Millions.

No trainer has targeted Kentucky Downs like Mike Maker, who annually has nearly twice as many starters at the meet than anyone else. Maker had a down year in 2023 but comes out swinging with runners in six races Thursday. Brendan Walsh, leading trainer during 2023, also has action in six races, while Steve Asmussen has runners in eight races.

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Tyler Gaffalione has won the last two riding titles and stands a solid chance of taking a third. This year, he’ll have competition from a European jockey, legendary Frankie Dettori, who is expected to ride all seven days of the meeting. Dettori, who has plied his American trade from coast to coast during 2024, has never ridden this track.

Blink, though, and you might miss this entire meet, with racing scheduled Thursday and Saturday this week, then on Sept. 1, Sept. 5, Sept. 7, Sept. 8, and Sept. 11. The season comes to a peak with the Sept. 7 program, which features six stakes, all worth $2 million. Two of them, the Turf Sprint and the Turf Cup, are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.

“Challenging” is how horseplayers might describe the Kentucky Downs meeting. But that’s a good thing. Full fields, a degree of chaos that can produce boxcar payoffs – riches for the gamblers as well as the owners.

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