Ellis Park begins 100th anniversary meet
The 100-year anniversary of the 1922 founding of Ellis Park begins Friday when the western Kentucky track opens a 23-day summer meet with an eight-race card.
Ellis officials have yet to announce a major celebratory event to recognize the milestone. The transition in ownership that occurred nearly three years ago, combined with the pandemic, have dramatically altered the grand plans once laid out by Laguna Development Corp., the track’s parent company based in New Mexico.
Instead, the track’s general manager, Jeff Inman, has been busy in recent months merely overseeing badly needed patchwork in restoring part of the old track’s charm.
“We’ve spent $4 million from December to now, all of it on various repairs,” Inman said.
The main restrooms on the ground floor, inoperable last summer, are now in working order, and the audio system throughout the track has been replaced. Inman said numerous other issues have been addressed, including the cracked pavement throughout the plant being smoothed over, while upkeep of the main track and turf course has remained a top priority.
“We’ve invested a lot in making sure the tracks are as safe and forgiving as they have a reputation for being,” Inman said.
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In July 2019, after buying the track from Ron Geary, representatives of Laguna unveiled plans for sweeping changes at Ellis amounting to tens of millions of dollars, but none have come to fruition. Horsemen’s representatives have expressed their frustration with the lack of progress; aside from the slots-like historical horse racing (HHR) machines housed in the clubhouse area of the track, there has been very little change in recent years to the physical state of Ellis, where the ancient water tower high above the entrance to the stable area still could use a new coat of paint or two.
“This is a legacy property, 100 years old,” Inman said. “You go into fix something, and sometimes you end up replacing it.”
Nonetheless, the quality of racing at the Ellis meet – sponsored once again this year by Runhappy – ranks well above average in the context of American racing. Thanks largely to revenues from the HHR machines and continuing contributions of horsemen’s funds from Kentucky Downs, maiden-special races are worth as much as $50,000, and allowances a little more. Almost half of those purses include bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds, although that’s a caveat often heeded as evidenced by fields being filled mostly by horses eligible to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. It’s also worth noting that, for the first time at any Kentucky track, claiming and starter-allowance races will now offer KTDF bonuses, albeit at far lesser proportions.
A satellite facility that will house 600 HHR machines and simulcasting in nearby Owensboro is expected to be operational within a year or so, said Inman, and will become another source to fund purses in future seasons. The Kentucky Downs contribution of several million dollars from the horsemen’s account, as arranged annually through the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association since 2017, once again is in effect this year, meaning “purses will be right about where we were last year,” Ellis racing secretary Dan Bork said.
Racing will be conducted three days a week (Fridays through Sundays) with the only deviation coming Aug. 13, when the Arlington Million and other accompanying turf features will be run at Churchill Downs for the first time. The Ellis meet ends Aug. 28, with Kentucky Downs taking over the Labor Day weekend when running a seven-day meet Sept. 1-14.
The Ellis stakes schedule, tweaked a bit from recent years, starts this weekend with a pair of $60,000 turf sprints for 3-year-olds – the Pea Patch for fillies on Saturday, and the Dade Park Dash on Sunday. The meet highlights come Aug. 7 and Aug. 14, with a combined nine stakes on those two dates. The showcase races, the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby and $125,000 Groupie Doll, are set for Aug. 14.
Unlike in recent years, there are no preview stakes toward the Kentucky Downs meet, although Bork explained that several renamed stakes such as the $60,000 Cowboy Jones on Aug. 6 essentially serve the same purpose.
The Friday opener includes three allowances (races 3, 6, 7) and three maiden specials (races 4, 5, 8), making for the type of high-class action that has come to characterize this circuit.
Jimmy McNerney is back for his eighth year as the Ellis race-caller and will share in-house broadcast duties with Megan Coady (née Devine), who will provide analyses and interviews from the paddock and winner’s circle. They’ll also co-host a pre-race in-house show for the first time.