Audubon Oaks Added on Road to the Kentucky Oaks

Along with the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby as a qualifying race for the rescheduled Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs, Ellis Park's $100,000 Audubon Oaks is now an official prep on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. 

The seven-furlong Audubon Oaks, back on the Ellis Park stakes schedule after an 11-year hiatus, will offer points on a lower-tier 10-4-2-1 basis for the top four finishers toward making the Sept. 4 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), the Henderson, Ky., track announced. Like the 1 1/8-mile Ellis Park Derby, which awards points on a 50-20-10-5 scale on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the Audubon Oaks will be run on dirt Aug. 9.

"We cannot thank Churchill Downs enough for including the Audubon Oaks as one of its additions to the Kentucky Oaks points races," Ellis Park general manager Jeff Inman said. "This is a huge and obviously historic opportunity for Ellis Park to have official prep races for the Derby and Oaks. We decided to bring the Audubon Oaks back off the shelf this year, and being on the Kentucky Oaks schedule is a great way to welcome it back."

Ellis Park, which runs each year in the summer, became available to stage qualifiers after the postponement of Derby week by Churchill Downs officials this year due to COVID-19. Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs altered their racing schedules to allow Churchill Downs to race from Sept. 1-5. Ellis also accommodated Keeneland by granting that track some of its customary race dates for a five-day meet in July.

The Ellis Park Derby falls four weeks after Keeneland's Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) and 4 1/2 weeks after Indiana Grand's Indiana Derby (G3), other nearby Kentucky Derby preps. The Audubon Oaks offers similar spacing from Keeneland's Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) and Beaumont Presented by Keeneland Select (G3), as well as the Indiana Oaks (G3). 

Ellis Park has a tie to the past two winners of the Kentucky Oaks, with 2019 winner Serengeti Empress taking the 2018 Ellis Park Debutante and 2018 heroine Monomoy Girl training at Ellis before launching her 2-year-old career.

The Ellis Park Derby could be a steppingstone to the Kentucky Derby for Lloyd Madison Farms' Major Fed, whose next start will be either the Blue Grass or the Indiana Derby, said trainer Greg Foley, who added that the Audubon Oaks could be a good fit for his filly Sconsin, a recent Churchill Downs allowance-level winner.

"I think it will be great for Ellis Park," said the Louisville-based Foley. "Those people down there, they love that racing. It's sure coming in handy for them, the weird year we're having."

Brad Cox, a two-time leading trainer at Ellis Park, said Godolphin Racing's Shared Sense, the runner-up in a second-level allowance race June 13 at Churchill, and Rupp Racing's recently gelded Shake Some Action could be candidates for the Ellis Park Derby. Flurry Racing Stables, Qatar Racing Limited, and Big Aut Farms' Shedaresthedevil, a graded winner at Oaklawn Park and most recently a Churchill allowance-level winner June 5, could be a possibility for the Audubon Oaks, he said. 

Owner Chester Thomas of Allied Racing Stable and a native of Madisonville, Ky., also hopes to participate in the Ellis Park Derby with one of his horses at what he considers his hometown track. One possibility could be the Bret Calhoun-trained Mr. Big News, the winner of the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes.

"As someone who has been going to Ellis Park my entire life, I'm unbelievably excited about the track having a Kentucky Derby prep—although I'm hoping these are once-in-a-lifetime circumstances and we never have to deal with a coronavirus again," said Thomas, a two-time Ellis Park leading owner.