Joe Shiesty a longshot no more as 25-day meet begins

Coming off a Churchill Downs spring meet that averaged $1.4 million in daily purses, where maiden races went for a whopping $120,000, a letdown, at least a deep exhalation, inevitably accompanies the annual Kentucky circuit shift to Ellis Park.

Thursday marks the opening of a 25-day meeting at Ellis, the plucky western Kentucky racecourse wedged between the Ohio River a few hundred yards south and the Indiana border a stone’s throw north. The track returns to normal this year after an extended run during 2023, when a sizeable chunk of Churchill’s meeting moved to Ellis owing to racing surface concerns in Louisville.

The Ellis meet won’t make paupers of participating horsemen. Maiden races go for $71,000, and Ellis expects to pay out more than $600,000 in daily purses, a total that includes the 18-race, $3.7 million stakes program and generally is made possible by roughly 300 historical racing machines on the property. The weekend of Aug. 3-4 headlines the stakes schedule, with seven Kentucky Downs prep races spread over the two days, among them the meet’s richest race, the $400,000 Pucker Up.

Many major barns – Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox, and others – already have been running Ellis strings, and while trainers with the stock to compete head to the boutique meet at Saratoga, an increasing number of horsemen have settled year-round in purse-rich Kentucky.

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Cox has been especially live, even by his standards, two of the last three Ellis seasons: In 2023, as leading trainer, his stable went 21 for 64, and in 2021, leading trainer again, Cox was 23 for 66.

While Gerardo Corrales earned leading rider honors the last two years, Cristian Torres, second in the 2023 standings, would have to be favored this summer. The top 10 jockeys from last year all are expected to ride regularly.

Ellis runs weekend cards but altered its standard three-day week (opening week spans Thursday to Sunday) replacing Friday with Monday, a dark day at the coastal boutique meetings. Turf racing features prominently since the season’s brief duration means the course need not be preserved for late-meet use.

Ellis offers an all-turf pick three with a $3 minimum, and that bet, like the pick five and pick six, has a 15 percent takeout. Win, place, and show takeout is 17.5 percent, the rake on all other bets is 22 percent.

A win bet on Joe Shiesty in the William Walker Stakes on May 1 at Churchill returned more than $60, but the gelding could be favored in Thursday’s stakes, the $125,000 Dade Park Dash, a grass race over 5 1/2 furlongs.

The Dade Park, restricted to 3-year-olds, drew eight entrants and the other seven never have run as fast as Joe Shiesty winning the Walker. A longshot because he’d never started on grass and exited a subpar Turfway Park showing, Joe Shiesty burst to an early lead and never relinquished it, winning by 2 1/4 lengths while earning a 96 Beyer Speed Figure. With no other races for the horse at Churchill, trainer Eric Foster targeted the Dade Park.

“I wanted to stay with 3-year-olds, and I knew this race would be coming up,” Foster said. “He’s doing good. He’s a nice little horse, and we know he’s run good for us before off a little time. I’m kind of following the same program that worked when he ran his better races.”

The problem with targeting a turf race is weather, which might not cooperate. Rain comes into the forecast late Wednesday, and there’s an 80 percent chance of rain Thursday. Foster said he’d likely run Joe Shiesty on dirt, though his other entrant, Alwaysintomischief, would stay in the barn.

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Torres picks up the mount on Joe Shiesty, and Foster said Torres recently made a trip to Ellis especially to work the horse.

Rail-drawn Bear River, a winner of consecutive Churchill turf sprints, could provide the main competition, though he employs the same forward style as Joe Shiesty. If those two burn one another out, Vote No and Committee of One enter the picture.

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