(Snapper Sinclair went off the favorite in last year's 12-horse Juvenile Stakes but still headed a $1 Pick 4 that paid $934. The same results would pay even better this year with a reduction of the Pick 4 takeout from 19 to 14 percent. Reed Palmer Photography)

Kentucky Downs has lowered the takeout on its Pick 4 wager from 19 to 14 percent for its upcoming meet in early September, further reducing what already was the country’s lowest overall cost for placing bets.

“I think that’s awesome,” said Jeff Platt, president of the Horseplayers Association of North America, which has ranked Kentucky Downs its No. 1 for the past three years. “I’m at a loss for words, it’s that awesome. The Pick 4 is hugely popular among players, insanely popular. Having a 14-percent Pick 4 is huge.”

America’s most unique race meets runs Sept. 1, 6, 8, 9 and 13th over the country’s only European-style race course. Kentucky Downs offers the highest average-daily purses in the world at $2 million a day for that five-date run as well as the highest average field sizes in North America,11 horses per race last year.

The low takeout combined with big fields is what puts Kentucky Downs on top, Platt said.

Takeout is the amount of each dollar wagered that comes off the top before winning bettors are paid. That money goes toward horsemen’s purses, the racetrack and parimutuel taxes. The Pick 4 is a 50-cent minimum wager where horseplayers seek to have in a single combination the winners of the four consecutive races comprising the bet. At 14 percent, the Kentucky Downs’ Pick 4 is among the lowest in the country. By comparison, most major tracks are at least 20 percent, some 24 percent or higher.

Going from 19 to 14 percent reflects a 26-percent reduction in the cost of the bet. Kentucky Downs has been widely praised for lowering the cost of betting, while under state regulations the track could assess a takeout on multi-horse bets as high as 22 percent. Nineteen percent is the highest of any wager at Kentucky Downs.

“That’s a big drop, for sure,” Ray Arsenault, winner of the 2017 National Horseplayers Championship, said of the Pick 4. “That’s great for the horseplayers. It’s like a rebate. I play the Pick 4 all the time. That’s one of our main bets.”

Kentucky Downs also has a 14-percent takeout on its Pick 5 wager, with its 18.25-percent rate on the popular exacta bet the smallest in the country and its 16-percent takeout on win, place and show wagering among the lowest. The minimum wager is 50 cents for the trifecta, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5 and Super Hi-5; $1 for exactas and daily double; $2 for win, place and show, and 10 cents for the superfecta. 

Said Platt: “It’s an incredibly enjoyable handicapping and betting experience.”

(Photo: TVG's Scott Hazelton with Caton Bredar at Monmouth Park for the Haskell)

TVG, the popular cable racing network, will be broadcasting onsite for the first time from Kentucky Downs, with Scott Hazelton at the track on Sept. 6 and 8.

“Given that I’ve never been there, I hope to give the perspective of somebody who has never had the chance to go,” Hazelton, who hails from a prominent Chicago and Arizona racing family, said of Kentucky Downs. “We see the simulcast feed; I don’t think it gives it the full perspective. I’m going to try to go around as many places as I possibly can. We talked about walking the turf course and video-taping it, so people can see it — then speeding up the video and stuff like that. We have so much flexibility with the setup we come in with — we can broadcast from anywhere. So I can go up by the gate, go wherever we want to and can.”

Hazelton is the son of trainer Richard Hazelton, who before he became a Chicago racing icon was the kingpin of Arizona tracks during a career spanning more than 50 years and 4,745 victories. Scott Hazelton spent summers working in the Arlington Park racing office while in college, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in broadcasting in 2004. He promptly went to work for the Horse Racing Television (HRTV) cable network, which was acquired by TVG in 2015 and rebranded as TVG2.

Sept. 6 is Old Friends Day, headlined by the $250,000 Old Friends Stakes for horses that haven’t won a stakes in 2018. Sept. 8 features five stakes totaling $2.7 million: four graded stakes, topped by the $750,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup, and the new $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint for 2-year-olds.

Hazelton will offer a mixture of interviews and handicapping, including at times teaming with Kentucky Downs analyst Caton Bredar, a regular TVG contributor who will provide the racing channel with reports and her picks the other days of the meet as well.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “It’s such a unique place and the racing is fantastic. It seems that in such a short period of time it’s become a big meet. The amount of top trainers, top horses, top jockeys who go there, it speaks to itself. People on TVG have responded well to it but I think they will even further having that onsite presence and the ability to talk to people and get insight on what it takes to win there.

“I can’t wait to see it.”

Dennis Poppe of suburban Seattle and Tom Pinkowski of Mt. Sterling, Ky., will be at the post for Kentucky Downs’ race meet next month as the track’s guests after winning the #LiveAtKYDowns Post Time Contest.

Participants posted on Twitter and Facebook why they wanted to come to America’s most unique race meet for the first time or why they wanted to go back. There were two grand prizes: a national category for those living more than 200 miles from Kentucky Downs and a regional division for those within that radius. The contest started in late June and ran through July 31, with the winners announced during Ellis Park’s Aug. 5 Kentucky Downs Preview Day.

“We agonized over selecting two winners out of so many passionate and clever posts,” said Amber Norris, Kentucky Downs’ director of marketing. “If this was a horse race, the announcer would have said at the wire, ‘Too close to call.’ Ultimately Dennis and Tom were chosen in very tight finishes for the breadth of their originality and humor — the ones that literally made us LOL."

The judging was so agonizing that Kentucky Downs asked four others to come Saturday, Sept. 1, to be the track's guest. Kimberly Mosier (@KimberlyMoier) of Muncie, Ind., Jim Reams (@TommynEmmasBoy) of Somerset, Ky., and Gregory Holloway (@UKHolloway91) of Louisville will be at the track opening day, while Ann Chaloux (@ChalouxAnn) of Livonia, Mich., is unable to attend.

“We cannot express how appreciative we are of everyone who participated and hope they all come and see us and let us know who they are," Norris said. "We are thrilled with our first foray into such a contest and the enthusiasm and fervor shown by both those who have been here and those with Kentucky Downs on their bucket list. We love our fans, whether on-track and those in the national simulcasting market.”

Poppe said these were his favorite posts:

“Why Kentucky Downs? BYORS: Bring your own reserved seat!!”

“Mow Town: Where the horses make the music”

We also liked these:

“Having coffee with Jerry Hollendorfer this morning and mentioned the purse sizes at KY Downs - that he should ship some in to get some of that cash.”

“This is something I will NOT see at Kentucky Downs.”

The 41-year-old Pinkowski, whose Twitter name is @TomRubiano, had almost-daily Facebook and Twitter posts touched on everything from handicapping, to the names of drinks at Kentucky Downs’ clubhouse bar, to preparing his shoes and fashion items for the trip to daydreaming — all done with self-deprecating humor. Pinkowski even apologized for a few missed days when a Central Kentucky storm knocked out their power. 

Pinkowski said he and his wife spent a lot of time brainstorming about posts and keeping track of the competition, finding almost nothing too shameless in pursuit of victory. Even before he donned a pair of silks and goggles, Deb Lynch-Pinkowski put them on to encourage her husband to create such a post.

“I wasn’t too keen on it,” he said. “She said, ‘You should really do it.’ I said, ‘OK. If I embarrass myself to win it, I’ll do it.’”

Pinkowski crafted a two-part post that showed him strolling away from the Kentucky Downs paddock with the caption, “That swagger you have when you hit an exacta & a trifecta in a row until…” The next day’s post featured a photo of him with a pained expression and the caption: “Until the next few races & your wife's horses start coming in and mine were not even close to hitting the board. I give her a fake smile trying to be happy for her. I'm hoping to win the #LiveAtKyDowns trip to try and show her my sharpened handicapping skills!!”

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HENDERSON, Ky. —  The Aug. 5 Kentucky Downs Preview Day at Ellis Park received wide praise — “great” being a typical assessment — expectations are that the multi-stakes event will return next year even better and perhaps bigger.

A total of $2,049,132 was wagered on-track and nationally on the nine-race card that featured four $100,000 grass stakes funded by money transferred from Kentucky Downs’ purse account. That’s the most bet on Ellis Park in several years, dating to when the track ran more races on a program. Racing secretary Dan Bork called it “one of the best days of racing at Ellis Park as far as quality in the last decade.”

“I really enjoyed it,” said Mike Bruder, the Evansville businessman and horse owner who is on the board of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents owners and trainers. “We got some nice quality horses and a few riders in (from out of town). I thought the card went well. The track’s a little fast, but we haven’t had any rain. But I thought the whole day went great. I think everybody was pretty happy with the results, even the bettors. It was a decent crowd, and people seemed to stay longer \ than most days. The only thing bad about the day was the heat.”

The races were competitive — including two photo finishes — with field sizes ranging from eight horses to 11.

“I think the hot weather kept a few fans away, but it was a very enthusiastic crowd and the day had a great feel,” Bork said. “I was very satisfied how the races turned out and thrilled how the horsemen supported the program. I think it was very successful for the first go at it. We obviously can improve and look forward to next year. It was great for us, for the Kentucky horsemen and for Kentucky Downs. 

“We’ve got room to do a lot more. This is just the beginning.”

Kentucky Downs Preview Day is unique in American horse racing because the stakes quartet was funded entirely by purse revenue generated at another track with different ownership. It was part of a total of $2.9  million transferred from Kentucky Downs to Ellis Park this meet in an agreement with the Kentucky HBPA.

Said: Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ senior vice president and general manager: "All and all the day was great. We were thrilled with how it went and are looking forward to next year with the possibility of expanding. The concept is amazing. There aren’t too many tracks that are going to allow another track to label four races Kentucky Downs Preview. It’s great for us. But we have the purse money, and it’s a really good relationship between the two tracks.” 

Jockey Shaun Bridgmohan teamed with trainer Brad Cox to capture the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile with Mr. Misunderstood and the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Calumet Farm Turf Cup with Arklow as well as two undercard races. Bridgmohan won six races overall.

The other stakes winners were Jazzy Times, a $25,000 claim by owner-trainer Wes Hawley who gave jockey Ty Kennedy his first Ellis stakes victory with the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint. Gulfstream Park-based Tyler Gaffalione won the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf aboard the Mike Maker-trained I’m Betty G for the 2015 Eclipse Award apprentice jockey who was riding at Ellis for the first time. 

All four winners are being pointed toward stakes at Kentucky Downs, their trainers said.

Kentucky Downs Preview Day at Ellis Park race recaps

Kentucky Downs has donated $25,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Franklin-Simpson for the organization’s mission of helping youths “reach their full potential as productive, caring responsible citizens.”

 

“Kentucky Downs is where excitement meets fun and luck, where dreams can come true,” said Valerie Strafe, Kentucky Downs’ vice president for operations. “A lot of kids are at risk of being left behind before they ever get started. We want to help put them on a path to where they also have a chance to realize their dreams.

 

“The Boys & Girls Club is a game-changer for these kids, and Kentucky Downs has always had the organization in our hearts. We care about our community, we care about our employees and their families. The work that Boys & Girls Club does with our kids is a foundation for the future of this town. We are very proud to be able to help them continue the great job they’re doing, to help them develop the more than 300 kids and teens who attend the club every day. The club keeps them safe and develops them as responsible citizens. Franklin-Simpson should be very proud for having such an exemplary organization.”

 

The Kentucky Downs grant will be used toward back-to-school supplies; developing a program at the Boys & Girls Club’s new Teen Center where participants are the main creators, designers and bloggers for the club’s website and social media; buying a requested Christmas gift for all the kids and staging a holiday lunch or dinner for the kids and their parents; as well as money to assist in general expenses, supplies and expansion. 

“The Boys & Girls Club has been changing and making a difference in our kids’ lives for more than 11 years now,” said Jef Goodnight, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Franklin-Simpson. “We couldn’t do it with out the support of the community and businesses like Kentucky Downs. The commitment to our club and what we are doing makes a statement to our kids, our parents and our community. We can’t thank Kentucky Downs enough for this donation and unwavering support over many years.“