Holiday meet opens with large fields, big purses

Horses who spent the season or made a stop at Turfway Park last winter had a major impact on this year’s major events. Flush off that success, Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., opens a roughly four-month racing season on Wednesday, with large fields chasing the large purses that have become a mainstay on the Kentucky circuit.

For record-keeping purposes, Turfway divides its season into two meets. The holiday meet runs from Nov. 29 through Dec. 30, with a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule, and a daily first post of 5:55 p.m. Eastern. The 20-day stand features average daily purses of $384,700 – about $29,000 more than what was offered over the 19-day period in 2022.

The purse money includes funds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, pending final approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. The impact of those large purses is evident on Wednesday’s card. The nine-race program has drawn an average field size of 13.1 horses per race.

The holiday meet includes five black-type stakes, each worth $125,000. The first of those comes Saturday night in the Holiday Inaugural for fillies and mares, which has drawn an overflow field of 14, led by Marissa’s Lady, a three-time stakes winner last season at this track.

Turfway’s winter-spring meet runs on a similar schedule from Jan. 3 through March 30. Those months are highlighted by a series of points races toward the Kentucky Derby, contested at parent company Churchill Downs Inc.’s flagship track in Louisville.

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The $125,000 Leonatus Stakes, at a mile on Jan. 20, begins the series and leads to the first points opportunity, the $150,000 John Battaglia Memorial, a 1 1/16-mile race awarding points to the top finishers on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale. The series concludes with the Grade 3, $700,000 Jeff Ruby at 1 1/8 miles, with points distributed on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis.

The Ruby, one of six stakes on Turfway’s marquee March 23 program, has had a major impact on the last two editions of the Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike raced through Turfway’s entire prep series, including a third-place finish in the Ruby, en route to his stunning upset in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. Two Phil’s dominated the 2023 Ruby before finishing a solid second in the Kentucky Derby five weeks later.

On the Ruby undercard last year, a Juddmonte Farms homebred rolled to her first stakes win in the Latonia – one of her three victories during the winter at Turfway. Idiomatic went on to win five graded stakes in 2023, including three Grade 1 triumphs topped by the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She is considered an Eclipse Award favorite.

Brad Cox, Idiomatic’s trainer, was one of several prominent conditioners to maintain a string at Turfway as it was open for training in the off-season, and Cox’s stable will again be among the key barns at the meet. Other stables represented will be Turfway mainstays such as Steve Asmussen, Paulo Lobo, Mike Maker, Billy Morey, and Wesley Ward, along with trainers such as Tom Amoss, Josie Carroll, Phil D’Amato, Kelsey Danner, and Cherie DeVaux.

Gerardo Corrales and Walter Rodriguez, the leading riders at Turfway during the 2022-23 season, will be joined in the jockey colony by Alex Achard, Gavin Ashton, Adam Beschizza, Declan Cannon, Declan Carroll, Abel Cedillo, Axel Concepcion, Fernando De La Cruz, Martin Garcia, Colby Hernandez, Albin Jiminez, Chris Landeros, Luan Machado, John McKee, Perry Ouzts, Ferrin Peterson, Joe Ramos, Gabe Saez, and Joe Talamo.

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A newcomer to the Kentucky circuit this winter will be Tyler Conner, among the leading riders at Penn National.

Tony Calo is Turfway’s new track announcer, taking over from Jimmy McNerney, who will continue in his role as a jockey agent. For the past 15 years, Calo has served as the track announcer at Finger Lakes in upstate New York.

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