KY Downs Preview Weekend at Ellis: Keeping horses in KY

Kentucky HBPA press release by Jennie Rees (Coady Media/Renee Torbit photo of Pin Up Betty winning G3 Regret)

For trainers Mike Maker and Brian Lynch, Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend at Ellis Park is exactly what the name implies: The opportunity to get horses to Kentucky Downs and America’s largest stakes purses four and five weeks later.

“Every single one of them,” said Maker, who is Kentucky Downs’ all-time leader in wins, purse earnings, starts, seconds, thirds and meet titles. He has nine horses entered in five of this weekend’s seven turf stakes.

“We are focused on trying to get them all eligible to get into those races,” said Lynch, who has six horses entered in three of the Ellis stakes. “Kentucky Downs can make a trainer’s summer or make the whole year. This program at Ellis has stopped me from going to Saratoga.”

The event launched in 2018 as Kentucky Downs Preview Day, starting out as a one-day event with four $100,000 stakes, of which $25,000 was restricted to Kentucky-breds. Patterned after the Breeders’ Cup’s “Win And You’re In” program, horses who win a Preview race are guaranteed a fees-paid spot in the corresponding race at Kentucky Downs in Franklin.

The Preview series was the brainchild of Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork, coming to fruition via a collaboration with Kentucky Downs, the Kentucky HBPA and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. The stakes were funded out of purse money generated at Kentucky Downs and transferred to Ellis Park under a unique arrangement with Kentucky Downs, the Kentucky HBPA (which represents owners and trainers at both Kentucky Downs and Ellis Park) and the racing commission (which must approve allotments of Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund monies).

Preview Day morphed into Preview Weekend with the expansion to seven races in 2021. Last year the purses increased to a minimum of $200,000 (including KTDF) to $300,000 for the Grade 3 Pucker Cup for 3-year-old fillies, which Ellis Park’s corporate owner Churchill Downs Inc. moved from defunct Arlington Park. 

This year, the minimum purse is $250,000, with Sunday’s Kentucky Downs Preview Turf now $300,000 and the Pucker Up $400,000 (all including KTDF money).

“I don’t know anything comparable in America, maybe the world, where one track provides the funding to a track with different ownership to such an extent as Kentucky Downs does for Ellis Park and other tracks in the state,” said Kentucky Downs HBPA President Rick Hiles. “We’re proud to have embraced the concept from the beginning. It certainly has done well by Ellis Park horsemen, and it provides the summer’s best weekend of racing in the Midwest. Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend absolutely keeps horses in Kentucky for the summer.”

Pin Up Betty seeks to join mom as a Preview winner

Maker won the inaugural Preview Ladies Turf in 2018 with Three Diamonds Farm’s I’m Betty G, whose homebred daughter Pin Up Betty is the 9-5 favorite in the Pucker Up at 1 1/8 miles.

Pin Up Betty needed eight starts to win but has found a home on grass, in her last two starts winning Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Regret and then finishing a good fourth in New York’s Grade 1 Belmont Oaks. “A couple of nice fillies were ahead of her, but she’s on top of her game,” Maker said.

Dana’s Beauty (in Sunday’s Preview Ladies Turf Mile), was purchased for $450,000 at Keeneland’s April auction by Resolute Racing and sent to Maker. She won Lone Star Park’s $200,000 Ouija Board in her first start for the new barn, then was not a factor in Woodbine’s Grade 2 Nassau. 

“I really like her,” Maker said. “She needs firm turf. Last time at Woodbine it was soft, and she didn’t run a jump.”

Maker has been aggressively claiming horses for Kentucky Downs, finding Preview Weekend the ideal place to prep. Those claims include Texas Turf Classic winner What Say Thee, who has won three straight and is 4 for 5 since being claimed for $35,000; $80,000 claim Gun Town and $100,000 claim Camp Hope — all entered in Sunday’s Preview Turf Cup (though Camp Hope needs two scratches to run). He also has Tut’s Revenge ($62,500 claim), Big Dreaming ($30,000) and WW Candy ($80,000 out of his last start and making his turf debut) in Saturday’s Preview Mint Millions Mile.

“I look for horses that can stretch out, and WW Candy is another one who should be able to handle the grass,” Maker said. “I don’t think 5 1/2 is his game.”

Anglophile thriving as he preps for return to KY Downs

Lynch is hoping Oscar’s World or Beyond Stoked can earn a free berth in Kentucky Downs’ Nashville Derby Invitational by winning Saturday’s preview race at 1 1/8 miles, or at least run well enough to get an invitation to the 1 5/16-miles Grade 3 stakes on Aug. 31.

“I thought Oscar’s World was very impressive winning the allowance race the other day and I think he’ll enjoy some more ground,” Lynch said. “This is an ideal spot to try to get him a free berth into the Nashville Derby. He’s a horse that maybe lacks a little prize money or black type. If you can pull this off or even hit the board, it’s going to be a big help. Beyond Stoked was a good second in the Caesar’s at Indiana, and I felt he deserved a chance in this spot.”

Lynch won last year’s Nashville Derby when it was called the Dueling Grounds Derby with Anglophile, who runs in Sunday’s Preview Turf Cup along with stablemate Highway Robber.

“I’m going to try Highway Robber at a mile and a quarter and hopefully he’ll get the distance and we can step forward and go a mile and a half,” he said of the $2 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G2) on Sept. 7. “This is his third start back (off an 8 1/2-month layoff). We know Anglophile likes Kentucky Downs and we really feel like he’s coming into himself. His last couple of works have been as good as we’ve ever seen with him.”

The barn has another two-horse entry with Hello Hollywood and Kalispera in the Pucker Up, whose winner gets a free roll in the $1.6 million Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational on Sept. 11. Hello Hollywood beat her stablemate in an Ellis Park allowance race July 7.

“Two 3-year-old fillies you’re trying to get some black type on and increase their prize money so they’re eligible for some of those 3-year-old filly races at Kentucky Downs,” Lynch said.