Churchill Downs Begins Spring Meet With Stacked Fields

Three weeks after its original intended opening, Churchill Downs will join a select but growing number of tracks resuming operations amid COVID-19 when it begins its spring meet May 16.

Although conditions are different from last fall when the track averaged daily purses of more than $771,000 and 8.9 starters a race, one constant remains: The track is a popular destination. A total of 255 horses and 78 also-eligibles were entered in its 22 races over its opening weekend, an average of nearly 11.6 horses within the bodies of the fields.

The entrants include a pair of Breeders' Cup winners in Monomoy Girl (2018 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, G1) and Four Wheel Drive (Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, G2T), the former in an allowance May 16 and the latter in another May 17.

This comes despite the stable area only beginning to fill up. The backstretch opened May 11, and as a COVID-19 safety measure, the track staggered its arrivals from different locales to maintain adequate social distancing. Horses from Arkansas, for example, are only slated to ship into the backstretch May 17-19, unless entry in a race or other unique circumstances necessitate an earlier arrival.

When the shipping eventually comes to a close, the barn area is expected to include some powerful new additions. Churchill will receive an influx of horses who raced in California—trained by John Sadler, Richard Baltas, Phil D'Amato, Keith Desormeaux, Bob Hess, and Jerry Hollendorfer, Churchill Downs racing secretary Ben Huffman said. They'll be joined by some East Coast trainers who are expected to have increased participation this year.

Todd Pletcher and Tom Proctor are back with small strings, Huffman said, and Chad Brown will keep a 24-horse stable at Churchill for the entirety of the meet.

Thirty-seven riders have mounts Saturday, including those named aboard also-eligibles, and seven rank in the top 12 by North American earnings this year.

Not every trainer was fortunate to secure stall space at Churchill Downs or at its Trackside off-track training facility. Some horses have recently shipped to Keeneland, which welcomed more horses into its backstretch this week, accommodating stables that were not stabled there when COVID-19 restrictions were put in place in mid-March.

Churchill Downs will offer some of the highest purses in the country—diminished from its fall level for spectatorless racing but still projected to a lucrative $559,000 daily average.

"So we were going to be strong anyway, but even after the other tracks reopen and get going—whether it's a week after us, two weeks after us, three weeks after us, doesn't matter—we're still gonna be strong," Huffman said. "I'm getting too many calls and text messages from people that have never stabled here. You know, people saying, 'Give me a training center phone number, anything.' Stuff like that."

That Churchill can provide such purse money—without the slot-like historical horse racing terminals in operation at its Derby City Gaming facility—encouraged many. Derby City Gaming and other HHR facilities in the state are temporarily closed due to COVID-19. 

"I'm just pleased that they're able to get racing back, No. 1. And No. 2, I've looked at the purses and they're a little bit higher than we expected them to be," Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association president Rick Hiles said at a May 7 meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund advisory committee. "Everybody's tickled to death; we're just glad to be back racing."

Churchill Downs racetrack senior finance director Tom Minneci told the KTDF advisory committee that plans tentatively call for the HHR facility to reopen June 1. Like restaurants, those facilities initially might have attendance limited.

Illustrating the lucrative purse structure this spring, maiden special weight races for older horses are being run for a base purse of $50,000, with another $29,000 in additional purse funds for Kentucky-breds through the KTDF. 

Allowances can reach $85,000 with incentives, making the meet appealing to trainers such as Brown.

"We've been waiting for quite a while to run some of our better horses for better prize money, and Churchill is going to be the first meet that we are really able to do that this year," he said.

Although most of his better stakes horses are expected to stay on the sidelines, awaiting a resumption of racing in New York and major-stakes opportunities in California, Brown expects to run a top-class group, led by some foreign imports who might otherwise have raced during the spring meet at Keeneland, which was canceled due to the pandemic.

"We're not treating this like a second division. I realize with the amount of purse money Kentucky's giving away, the quality of trainers, owners, and horses there is high. So you can't take the approach that you can go into there with your 'B' string and think that you're gonna outrun other top horsemen's 'A' strings; it's not gonna happen."

Brown's barn will be overseen by assistant Whit Beckman, a Louisville native.

Even with the addition of Brown's horses and those of others, the Churchill meet still might not feel fully up to past standards, namely due to the postponement of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) to Sept. 5. Not only will the stands be empty, none of the other highlights from Derby week will be experienced until the fall.

With the track wanting to replicate Derby Week when it runs a unique set of dates from Sept. 1-5, including the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), the absence of these races leaves a sizable hole. Before COVID-19, the track planned to run 18 stakes during Derby Week worth more than $10.1 million.

Other spring stakes had purse cuts, like the Stephen Foster Stakes (G2), down from its originally announced $700,000 to $500,000. Others were eliminated altogether, such as the Debutante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. It went on hiatus after being contested for $125,000 in 2019. 

Huffman theorized that that division might lack depth, given fewer starts for juveniles this year as a result of racing shutdowns. He hopes that fillies who would have raced in the Debutante will face males in the June 27 Bashford Manor Stakes (G3) instead.

"We cut a lot of money out of our stakes program for the rest of the year, including the rest of the spring," Huffman said. "And then we did a few other small things where I eliminated all overnight stakes—we had a bunch of them in the past in the spring—because it's a condensed meet. Overnight stakes a lot of times are used as preps to one of our other (major) stakes."

Some gaps exist in the stakes program, most noticeably the lack of a two-turn dirt stakes prep for the postponed Kentucky Oaks.

The $100,000 Dogwood Stakes (G3) will offer qualifying points toward the Oaks on a 20-8-4-2 basis to its top four finishers, though its distance of seven furlongs is a quarter-mile shorter than the Oaks. If the Dogwood had been a route, it might have fallen more into the plans for a filly such as Bonny South, who has not raced since winning the 1 1/16-mile Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) March 21 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

Currently in training at Keeneland, she could race in the Ashland Stakes (G1) if Keeneland is successful in its bid to run a yet-to-be-finalized summer meet with major stakes, trainer Brad Cox said.

Cox, who spoke to a couple dozen members of the media in an outdoor, social distance-staged press conference at Churchill on May 15, is eager to run Monomoy Girl and other horses he trains during the spring meet.

"It's big for the industry all around, not just here in Louisville and at Churchill," Cox said. "It keeps the whole business going from the sales to the racing. Hopefully, it gives some other states the opportunity to see that it can be done and open up racing across the country again."

Trainer Tom Amoss said at the press conference that he believes Churchill Downs Inc. is reaping the benefit of keeping Fair Grounds, a track it also owns, open for training after that meet was ended prematurely March 21. Many horses who typically race in Kentucky during the spring months needed to remain there until Churchill opened its stable area this week, and now they are returning ready to run.

The full entries make for a good product for horseplayers, though tough going for owners, trainers, and jockeys in search of a victory.

"Well, Brad was the first to speak here, and I came behind him, as many of my horses do when I run against Brad," Amoss quipped. "So now I have got a bunch of 'Brads'—there are a lot of really good trainers here. From the standpoint of handicapping, the races are going to be great for the bettor. They're going to offer value, big fields, a lot of opportunities to take advantage of nice odds on a horse that has a big chance to win.

"From a trainer's point of view, you're just not going to win that often, or as often as you used to. Mathematically, 12-horse fields don't allow you the same chance to win as you do when you're running against six- or seven-horse fields."

The resumption of stabling and racing required Churchill Downs to conduct numerous safety protocols to gain approval from the state, ranging from daily medical screenings, jockeys' room adjustments, employee training related to COVID-19, and expanded cleaning procedures. For now, Churchill only permits trainers, assistants, and grooms to accompany horses to the paddock for racing.

"For us, we feel a big sense of responsibility for the people that make their living in this industry," Churchill Downs president Kevin Flanery said at the press conference. "And so, for us, this really was a challenge. We wanted to do things right, wanted to be responsible, and wanted to get people home. That's really what it was all about. I'm excited about it. I'm excited that they are here. I'm excited that they have the opportunity to run for purse money so their businesses can thrive. Today's a good day. Tomorrow is going to be even better."