Huge purses highlight short meet

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs has its traditions, for sure, some newer than others. One of the more recent is a September meet that serves as a bridge from the summer to the ever-popular fall meets at Keeneland and Churchill.

The 11-day September meet starts Friday afternoon with a decent 10-race card that only hints at what lies ahead in the next couple of weeks: Nearly $4 million in purse money is up for grabs, including eight stakes worth just more than $1 million. The per-card purse estimate is for nearly $360,000, although that includes Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund bonuses; the per-card average for the September 2014 meet was $322,041.

Half of the stakes schedule will be run this Saturday, with a quartet of stakes led by twin features for 2-year-olds, the Grade 3 Iroquois and Grade 2 Pocahontas. Those races not only are Win and You’re In events toward the Oct. 30-31 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland but also kick off the respective points races toward the 2016 Kentucky Derby and Oaks. Entries for Saturday were drawn Wednesday.

The remaining stakes also will be run on Saturdays: the Grade 3 Dogwood is the feature of the lone Downs After Dark card on Sept. 19, and the newly named $175,000 Lukas Classic (formerly the Homecoming Classic) is one of three stakes Sept. 26.

The opening-day program starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern and will be anchored by a pair of allowances (races 3 and 9). Race 7 drew a full field of maidens as the lone turf race on the opener. In fact, turf racing will be purposely limited throughout the meet, as many horses from this circuit will be racing instead at turf-only Kentucky Downs.

Corey Lanerie, the leading jockey at eight of the last nine Churchill meets, heads a solid colony that will include many familiar faces, including Calvin Borel, Shaun Bridgmohan, Julien Leparoux, Robby Albarado, and Brian Hernandez Jr.

Because of the way the 2015 calendar fell with a late Labor Day, Churchill has subtly tweaked the September meet, with two “Twilight Thursdays” added for the first time. For the two prior years, the meet had consisted of four three-day weekends (12 days). Closing day this year is Sept. 27, after which Keeneland starts Oct. 2.

This is the third year for a September meet at Churchill. Turfway Park held the September dates through 2012.

Some of the more newsworthy events later this month at Churchill might actually occur in the a.m. and not the p.m., as trainer Bob Baffert is considering sending Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to train here toward the Oct. 31 BC Classic.