Opening night could feature Maker milestone

Four months of winter racing begins Wednesday evening at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, where opening-night action could be highlighted by something of note on a national level.

Mike Maker, the perennial leading trainer at Turfway, is just one victory away from hitting the 2,000-win mark, assuming his lone starter Wednesday at Aqueduct (Gold Lace in race 6) doesn’t get him to the milestone first. Maker himself will already be in Florida with his first string, but assistant John Lynde will be prepared to accept congratulations on behalf of his boss when sending out five horses competing in four races – Kits Gold (race 1), Hansen’s Girl (race 3), Mr. Compass (race 4), and the uncoupled entry of Kentucky Kitten and Dynamic Response (race 6).

Otherwise, night-to-night action over the Turfway Polytrack will proceed largely under the radar, just as it has in recent years. The vast majority of the top horsemen based in Kentucky for most of the other eight months of the year will spend the winter elsewhere, although a few holdovers waiting for Oaklawn Park to start Jan. 12 will be active during a holiday meet that runs through Dec. 31, including jockeys Channing Hill, Alex Canchari, and Rayan Gazader.

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Racing will be conducted four nights a week (Wednesdays through Saturdays) at the holiday meet, with the schedule winnowed to three nights (no Wednesdays) when the three-month winter-spring meet begins Jan. 1. Regular post time is 6:15 p.m. Eastern, with the daytime Spiral Stakes card on March 17 being one of the few exceptions.

The Grade 3 Spiral, which has produced two Kentucky Derby winners (Lil E. Tee and Animal Kingdom) in its 46-year history, has undergone sizable reductions in both its purse (from $500,000 to $200,000) and Derby eligibility points (from 50 to 10 for the winner). The Spiral undercard will now consist of five stakes, with the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Classic being revived to join the $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks, $75,000 Rushaway, and $75,000 Latonia.

Otherwise, the stakes schedule is a modest one, with just two $50,000 races set for the holiday meet – the Holiday Inaugural on Friday and the Dec. 29 Prairie Bayou – and only three stakes prior to Spiral Day during the winter-spring meet.

Nightly purses are expected to average about $100,000, said Turfway racing secretary Tyler Picklesimer, a modest number that includes supplements from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Turfway still does not offer Instant Racing to its customers, although an announcement to begin installing the slots-like machines on-site could be soon forthcoming, according to sources. Instant Racing revenues have bolstered purses elsewhere in Kentucky in recent years.

Entries for the eight-race opener were solid, with 91 horses (including five also-eligibles) spread among a card highlighted by a $20,400, first-level allowance (race 7).

Polytrack has been in use since September 2005 at Turfway, the former Latonia where racing was first held in Florence, Ky., in 1959.