Churchill pulls plug on turf racing for remainder of meet
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Churchill Downs on Friday canceled turf racing for the remainder of its race meeting, which concludes Sunday, the latest setback for a $10 million course installed before the start of the track’s 2022 racing season.
On Thursday, the Cardinal Stakes was contested on turf, the first grass race at Churchill since Nov. 11, when the track began moving turf races to dirt after some riders said that the course wasn’t safe, describing it, variously, as soft, loose, and slippery. A horse named English Treasure fell during a turf race Nov. 9.
Churchill said it was making daily raceday evaluations of the course to determine whether it was suitable for use. But multiple sources earlier this week said that the tentative plan, weather and safety permitting, was to move all carded overnight turf races to dirt for the remainder of the meet, run the Cardinal on grass, and then determine the course’s status for stakes races on Friday and Sunday.
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Friday’s program began with the turf listed as “good” for the Mrs. Revere Stakes but shortly after the card began, the Mrs. Revere was taken off turf and Churchill announced that grass racing Saturday and Sunday had been scrapped.
Problems with the new course began arising not long after it first was used for racing in May 2022. No turf races were run during the September 2022 meeting and Churchill’s second meet last fall had a limited grass schedule.
Sunday’s closing-day feature, the $300,000 Commonwealth, had drawn a robust and overflow field that is sure to be drastically reduced with the race run on the main track. Cherie DeVaux, trainer of morning-line favorite Northern Invader, said her horse was likely to participate. Northern Invader made his first two starts on dirt and performed well over the main track, albeit in one-turn races.
Ohana Honor, second to Northern Invader in the Gio Ponti Stakes last month in New York, also has turned in solid dirt performances, including his maiden win this past summer. His trainer, Shug McGaughey, said he believed Ohana Honor “can run on anything.”
Winters Lion has stronger dirt form than turf and is the Commonwealth entrant most likely to benefit from the surface switch.
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