Ellis Park purses gets $1 million bump from Kentucky Downs machines

Purses for Kentucky-breds at Ellis Park got another big boost during opening weekend at the western Kentucky track when an additional $1 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund was transferred from Kentucky Downs.

Maiden-specials with a maximum purse of $50,000 now are worth as much as $60,000, with allowances also getting an identical $10,000 hike, according to Ellis racing secretary Dan Bork. The raises became effective Sunday and do not apply retroactively to the first two cards of a 23-day meet that began July 8.

The $1 million brings to $3.2 million the total amount generated from the slots-like historical horse racing machines (HHR) at Kentucky Downs into the 2022 Ellis purse account during the meet, which runs through Aug. 28.

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“We looked at the purses for maidens in the summer and just thought they weren’t in line with what we’re trying to do for Kentucky,” Kentucky Downs co-managing partner Ron Winchell said in a Sunday release.

Working with the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Kentucky Downs since 2016 has transferred more than $25 million in purse and KTDF supplements generated to the state’s other racetracks, the majority benefiting Ellis.

A satellite HHR site in Owensboro owned by Ellis is expected to become operational in about a year and will generate purse money, lessening the need for such transfers, according to Ellis and HBPA officials.

As of early this week, the Ellis condition book available online at Equibase had yet to reflect the latest purse hikes, but Bork said early Wednesday those changes were in the process of being completed.

Penny breakage in effect

Penny breakage is now a reality in Kentucky racing, effective with the Friday card at Ellis. Instead of the traditional 10-cent increments effective for $1 payoffs, they’ll now be paid to the penny, thanks to a movement initiated in 2018 by Pat Cummings and Craig Bernick of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation. The change was approved earlier this year by the Kentucky legislature, with Adam Koenig, Al Gentry, and Damon Thayer instrumental in its passage.

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Kentucky is the first circuit in the United States to eliminate breakage that can make a substantial difference in returns to bettors. As an example, a $2 show payoff calculated to return $2.38 (and formerly would have paid $2.20) will now pay to the penny. Although mutuel clerks at brick-and-mortar sites will not be required to use pennies and will round down cash payoffs to the nearest dime, accounts through advance-deposit wagering sites will pay to the penny.

An estimated $35 million was retained in breakage from Kentucky races over the last five years, according to a TIF release.

Geroux winning everywhere

Jockey Florent Geroux, who will be riding regularly at Del Mar in Southern California for the first time this summer, already has won races at five different tracks through the first 12 days of July, with his latest victory coming Tuesday aboard Princess Grace in the Dr. James Penny Memorial at Parx in suburban Philadelphia. Geroux also has won races at Churchill, Ellis, Canterbury Park, and Horseshoe Indianapolis this month.

Geroux will be active for most of the Del Mar meet, which runs July 22 to Sept. 11, with occasional trips back east for stakes engagements.

Turf racing … finally

With little chance of rain in the Henderson, Ky., forecast, turf racing should be held as scheduled throughout the upcoming three-day weekend at Ellis. When the meet opened last Friday, four turf races were part of an eight-race card, but then all races were run on the main track Saturday and Sunday because of rainy weather.

The opening-day turf races have been the only ones run on the Kentucky circuit since June 10, when turf racing was canceled at the Churchill for the remainder of the spring meet because of unsafe conditions on the new turf course.

* The 18th running of the $85,000 Ellis Park Turf Stakes on Sunday is the highlight of the coming weekend at Ellis. Brendan Walsh is the trainer of six of the 20 fillies and mares nominated to a 1 1/16-mile turf race. Entries for the Ellis Park Turf were to be drawn Thursday.

* Vince Gabbert has joined the Ellis management team as interim director of operations after recently resigning his position as chief operating officer at Keeneland following a 14-year tenure at the Lexington track.