Turfway Park: Kentucky Cup Classic shortened, renamed WinStar Kentucky Cup

The anchor event in the Kentucky Cup series at Turfway Park has been shortened by a sixteenth of a mile and now will be run at 1 1/16 miles when the series is revived Sept. 24, it was announced Thursday by officials at the Florence, Ky., track.

In addition to the shortened distance, the Kentucky Cup Classic, as it was formerly known, has been renamed the WinStar Kentucky Cup to reflect the sponsorship of the Versailles, Ky., farm.

Turfway president Bob Elliston said the reason for the change in distance is to serve more adequately as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and BC Mile on turf, both to be run Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs.

The Kentucky Cup was run as a five-race series from 1994-2007 before the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies were dropped because of financial considerations. The Classic, Distaff, and Sprint were run in 2008 and 2009, but the series was dropped altogether last year, again because of finances. It was announced earlier this month that WinStar’s sponsorship had allowed the five-race series to be revived in its entirety, with the WinStar Kentucky Cup worth $200,000 and the other four worth $100,000 each.