Holiday meet opens four-month stretch highlighted by Jeff Ruby Steaks

Four months of winter action over Polytrack at Turfway Park will begin Wednesday evening when the Florence, Ky., track kicks off its 21-night holiday meet with an eight-race card.

As always, the holiday meet ends Dec. 31, after which the three-month winter-spring meet, highlighted by the Jeff Ruby Steaks, will begin the following day. A new, earlier date of March 9 is in place for the Ruby, the longtime Turfway 3-year-old showcase previously known under a variety of names. The date shift essentially came at the request of Churchill Downs in lining up its qualifying-points races for the Kentucky Derby. The Grade 3, $200,000 Ruby is worth 20 points to the winner.

Turfway racing secretary Tyler Picklesimer said per-card purses will average about $100,000, roughly the same as was paid during the 2017-18 meets. Those figures include bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, but not stakes.

“Everyone around here is excited about the meet starting,” Picklesimer said. “We’ve got some great trainers and jockeys ready to go.”

Wesley Ward and Mike Maker will have sizable strings to run, even though both will have their better horses in Florida and elsewhere over the coming months.

The jockey colony is led by the ageless Perry Ouzts, as well as Rodney Prescott, Victor Lebron, John McKee, Malcolm Franklin, and Abel Lezcano.

Luan Machado, a recent arrival from Brazil, can be expected to make an impact with Jimmy McNerney booking his mounts. McNerney, a perennial top agent, also doubles as the Turfway race-caller.

Turfway management is still formulating plans to transform its aging plant to accommodate historical racing machines, the slots-like devices now fueling purses at the other four major tracks in Kentucky.

Racing will be conducted Wednesday through Saturday during the holiday meet, after which the schedule is cut to three days, with Wednesdays dropped. First post daily is 6:10 p.m. Eastern, with exceptions being Dec. 31, Jan. 1, and Ruby Day (1:10 p.m.). TVG will be providing extensive coverage on its main channel.

The first stakes of the meet comes Friday night with the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural for filly-mare sprinters. Only one other stakes, the $50,000 Prairie Bayou on Dec. 28, will be run at the holiday meet. Nine stakes are on the schedule for the winter-spring meet, including six on Ruby Day. The winter-spring meet runs through March 30.

Opening night will provide typical fare to bettors, with a $20,400 allowance (race 6) being surrounded by maiden or claiming events.