Turfway changes Saturday post times

Turfway Park has revised its original post-time schedule for the 12-race Kentucky Cup program on Saturday to accommodate TVG and Fox Sports while also avoiding conflict with the running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

The original post time for the anchor of the five-race Kentucky Cup series, the $350,000 Classic, was 6:02 p.m. Eastern, but after the changes, the Classic is set for 5:43. The regional Fox Sports affiliates that carry some TVG programming would not have been able to air the Classic if it were run after 6, according to Mary Troilo, simulcast coordinator at Turfway in Florence, Ky.

"We basically tightened up the schedule, and while doing so we had to avoid being close to the Belmont race," said Troilo. The Jockey Club Gold Cup is set for 5:52 Eastern.

The first of the five consecutive Kentucky Cup races, the Juvenile Fillies, is set for 3:32.

The post parade for the Classic will feature the final appearance of Perfect Drift, the 9-year-old gelding who recently was retired after earning more than $4.7 million in a remarkable 50-race career. Perfect Drift won the 2002 Lanes End Spiral and the 2003 KC Classic at Turfway. Murray Johnson, who trained the gelding for all but his last four races, will saddle him in the Turfway paddock before Perfect Drift leads the post parade.