Ellis Park Claiming Funds Proposal Moves to KHRC

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund Advisory Committee endorsed June 8 a proposal by Ellis Park to supplement purses for claiming races. If approved by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, the three-tier structure would apply 3-5% of KTDF funding toward the endeavor.

Under the proposal, $5,000-$10,000 claiming races would see an additional $500; the next tier, $11,000-$15,000 would see an additional $1,000 awarded; and those $16,000 and greater would see an additional $1,500.

Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork reiterated that these funds would be in addition to the purses already offered.

"We look forward to being the guinea pig this summer and experimenting and seeing how this works," Bork said.

He added, "We're not sure how much we are going to pay out, how many Kentucky-breds are going to be winning. I think, for Ellis Park, it's the perfect place to start."

At 3%, the claiming supplement would be $84,000 for the year and $140,000 at 5%.

The biggest concern is making sure the funding does not take away from maiden, allowance, or stakes races.

"Our claiming purses were always a little bit behind," Bork said. "Our allowance and maiden races have always been good with the KTDF. That's essentially what we fill down there, a lot of maiden and allowance races. But I think with this, some of the guys that were almost forced to run in the allowance races or the straight maidens because of the purse level, this may be able to get them to a level where they are more competitive."

Kentucky Sen. Damon Thayer attended the meeting and lauded the effort. He said that his main purpose for attending was to make sure that efforts to add funding to claiming races started as soon as possible, especially in light of House Bill 607 being signed by Gov. Andy Beshear in April.

He believes adding the funding is "an opportunity to capture more market share.

"With the amount of money we are generating from (Historical Horse Racing), it's time for KTDF money to be used on claiming races," Thayer said.

Noting that the amount of money that can go to KTDF from HHR is capped at $45 million, he said, "I think there is plenty of money to go around."

Another proposal that is also advancing to the KHRC is Kentucky Downs' advertising request for this year. But it didn't come without a significant amount of wrangling.

Kentucky Downs senior vice president and general manager Ted Nicholson requested an increase in advertising budget from $139,000 last year to $294,000 this year.

Pointing out that the track's fall meet will go head-to-head with Del Mar's all but one day, made it critical to get the word out about Kentucky Downs. Nicholson is worried horseplayers may not know about their meet and wants to place advertising in the media consumed by that group of people. He also mentioned another difference from last year – the advertising strategy encompasses a longer period of time.

"We aren't just advertising for Kentucky Downs, we're advertising the Commonwealth for the fall. A lot of the ads will be playing...into the Breeders' Cup," he said. "That's something we hadn't done in the past, but the dollars will be well spent."

He added: "We want the world to know Kentucky Downs."

Committee chairman Bill Landes III was not sold, initially.

"What I'm really concerned about is the KTDF media spend at Kentucky Downs. That (the) money is justified and substantiated," Landes said.

He proposed what he called an option for building goodwill and better friendships: A 43% increase to $200,000 for advertising and a $100,000 contribution to Ellis Park for its supplemental claiming budget.

Committee member Braxton Lynch opined that she "doesn't want to throw money at it" out of fear of what might happen with Del Mar.

Coolmore America's Charlie O'Connor suggested Kentucky Downs scale back the number of media outlets it buys advertising from.

Eventually, the sides agreed to push forward a proposal that sees up to $250,000 for advertising with the hope Kentucky Downs makes a contribution to Ellis Park.