Turfway seeks Quarter Horses

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Turfway Park will formally ask the Kentucky Racing Commission later this year to allow the track to host 14 Quarter Horse races in 2003, Bob Elliston, president of Turfway, said at a meeting of the commission's dates committee Friday at Churchill Downs.

If permitted, Turfway would become the first major Kentucky track to host sanctioned Quarter Horse racing. Kentucky regulations currently bar all in-state simulcast outlets from wagering on Quarter Horse races.

All Kentucky tracks were represented at the meeting, which was designed to apprise the commission of what dates will be requested by the Oct. 1 deadline. Turfway, Churchill, Keeneland and Ellis Park all will seek their traditional dates for 2003. The commission will assign dates Oct. 28.

Churchill general manager Jim Gates, general manager of Churchill, said the track planned to go to several five-day weeks at the 2003 fall meet instead of exclusive six-day weeks.

Tim McCall, president of Southern Bluegrass Racing, said that group's proposed Quarter Horse track in Williamsburg would ask for three live dates for November 2003. The track is not yet built or licensed.