Turfway opener see big fields start to finish

Four months of winter racing at Turfway Park gets started Thursday evening when the northern Kentucky track runs a nine-race card with big fields from start to finish.

“We were swamped with stall applications, so hopefully that’s a sign we’ll have these big numbers all winter,” said Tyler Picklesimer, now in his third year as Turfway racing secretary. “It’s what fans want.”

Conducting racing over a Polytrack surface first used in September 2005, Turfway will run through the first weekend of April, when its signature race will be held a week later than normal. The Grade 3, $550,000 Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes is set for April 2, five weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby.

“We didn’t want to run (March 26) because that’s Easter weekend, and the last time we did that our business was way down,” said Turfway general manager Chip Bach. “We talked to a lot of trainers and they agreed that five weeks out is a good placement.”

Turfway is owned 90 percent by a casino company, Rock Gaming, and 10 percent by Keeneland. Turfway recently announced an intention to install some 250 slots-like “historical racing” machines on its premises, joining several other state racetracks in doing so. Bach said a timeline for the machines becoming operational is still to be determined.

In the meantime, purse levels remain well below those at the state’s other major racetracks. Purses in maiden-special and allowance races require fortification from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund even to achieve semi-respectability. For example, the Thursday feature is a $20,400 allowance, with $9,500 of that restricted to KTDF horses. Maiden-special races are worth $18,500, with $8,500 from the KTDF.

Picklesimer estimated per-day purses will average a little more than $100,000, including KTDF money and excluding stakes.

For record-keeping purposes, there are two separate meets: The Holiday meet runs through Dec. 31, and the winter-spring meet goes from Jan. 1 to April 3.

Post times have been tweaked yet again as Turfway tries to find a niche in the simulcast market. Using a four-day schedule (Thursday to Sunday) in December and January, programs will start at 6:15 p.m. Eastern except for Sundays (2:30). The schedule gets pared to three days (Friday-Sunday) in February and March.

The first of 10 stakes, the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural, already is drawn for Saturday, with Fioretti, upset winner of the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland in October, the likely favorite in a field of 11 filly-mare sprinters. The Dec. 19 Prairie Bayou is the only other stakes at the Holiday meet, while the winter-spring stakes start with the Jan. 2 Wintergreen.

Mike Maker, the perennial leading trainer at Turfway despite having his best horses stabled elsewhere, has 40 horses on the grounds. Albin Jimenez has dominated the jockey standings at recent Turfway meets but is likely to spend more time this winter at Tampa Bay Downs, leaving Didiel Osorio, Malcolm Franklin, and the ageless Perry Ouzts as top candidates for leading rider.