Kentucky okays 'super weekend'

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Turfway Park received approval Tuesday from the Kentucky Racing Commission to move its popular Kentucky Cup Day from Saturday, Sept. 15, to Saturday, Sept. 22.

The commission also approved a plan from Kentucky Downs - which cards only grass races - to move its Kentucky Cup Turf Festival from Saturday, Sept. 15, to Sunday, Sept. 23, in order to hold the grass races on the same weekend that Turfway hosts the Kentucky Cup dirt contests.

"We plan to promote a 'super weekend' between the two tracks," said Ryan Driscoll, general manager of Kentucky Downs.

The commission approval also means that Kentucky Downs, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, will cancel racing for Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Also at the meeting, the commission said it will delay creating a new drug-testing contract for the state by withdrawing its request for proposal (RFP), and the contract will be re-bid. The RFP, which commission chairman Frank Shoop praised in April as extremely comprehensive in describing testing requirements, has been withdrawn because of what commission vice-chairman Frank Jones Jr., called a "technical hitch."

Jones also said that the RFP would be held off until after an August report by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association on its "supertesting" results. The current contract with Truesdail Laboratories has been extended in the meantime.