Churchill Downs Readies for 21-Day Fall Meet

Cooler temperatures and the leaves changing colors signify the return of live horse racing to the Louisville area as Churchill Downs, the historic home of Kentucky Derby day, readies to open its 127th Fall Meet Sunday, Oct. 30.

            

The popular 21-day stand, which covers a four-week stretch through Sunday, Nov. 27, kicks off in style Sunday with the 12th annual "Stars of Tomorrow I" program, which is entirely devoted to hopeful 2-year-old stars that have aspirations of trail-blazing their way to next year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I).

            

Sunday's 10-race opening day card is headlined by the fourth running of a pair of one-mile, $80,000-added overnight stakes--the open-company Street Sense and Rags to Riches for fillies; along with the inaugural $300,000 Spendthrift Stallion Stakes, which is a lucrative seven-furlong sprint exclusively for 2-year-old offspring sired by any active or non-active Spendthrift stallion, including all Spendthrift-owned stallions standing regionally in North America.

Those races serve as local steppingstones to the pair of grade II, $200,000, 1 1/16-mile counterparts on the Saturday, Nov. 26 "Stars of Tomorrow II" program--the open Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod for fillie--that are part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks series which award points to the Top 4 finishers (10-4-2-1).

The new Spendthrift Stallion Stakes, made possible through a partnership with Spendthrift Farm, is designed to be run annually to benefit both racehorse owners and breeders. The $300,000 purse has been structured with a unique approach to award $150,000 to the owners of the placed horses, with the other $150,000 allocated to award the breeders of the first-through-fourth-place finishers. Specifically, the winning breeder will earn $60,000, with $40,000 going to the breeder of the runner-up, $30,000 for third, and $20,000 for fourth.

Sunday's National Weather Service forecast for Louisville calls for ideal conditions: mostly sunny skies with a high near 77. 

Inaugurated in 2005, Churchill Downs' Stars of Tomorrow programs have helped launch the careers of numerous graded stakes winners, including 48 future grade I winners and 31 millionaires led by 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver  ; 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra; 2011 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Shackleford  ; 2016 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner Creator; 2012 Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) and 2013 Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) hero Fort Larned  ; 2012 Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can; and champions Lawyer Ron, Tepin, and Will Take Charge  . 

            

Horses preparing for this year's Breeders' Cup (all races are grade I) that participated in past Stars of Tomorrow races include Carina Mia (Distaff or Filly & Mare Sprint), Dortmund (Dirt Mile), Gun Runner (Classic or Dirt Mile), I'm a Chatterbox (Distaff), Lord Nelson (Sprint), Tepin (Mile) and Tom's Ready (Dirt Mile).

Over the course of the meet, horsemen will have ample opportunities to uncork promising juveniles or seek year-end graded-stakes glory. All told, 14 stakes races cumulatively worth $2.42 million, which includes nine graded stakes events, will be run during the fall stand. Meanwhile, bettors are certain to be challenged by the competitive Fall Meet racing that typically pits the fastest and battle-tested horses against the recently freshened year-end bloomers. 

With a compact 21-day schedule and not as many competing race meets at year's end, the Fall Meet traditionally offers larger fields. Last fall, the average field size was 9.41 horses per race compared to the 8.03 and 8.51 at this year's Spring and September meets, respectively.

The horses this fall will be vying for more prize money, too, as more than $10.8 million is eligible to be paid. A year ago, the average daily purses distributed were $470,598, and an average of $515,286 is being offered daily in the condition book this year. 

The anchor of the lucrative stakes program comes on "Black Friday," Nov. 25 with the 142nd running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (gr. I). The 1 1/8-mile test for 3-year-olds and up annually lures some of the top older horses in North America and is one of seven stakes events cumulatively worth $1.48 million to be contested over Thanksgiving weekend. Also added to this day is the $200,000 Mrs. Revere (gr. II), a prominent 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies, which previously was run earlier in the meet.

After Sunday's opener, live racing will be conducted on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule with dark days on Mondays and Tuesdays. Most race days feature 10 live races, but there will be 11 on Saturday, Nov. 12 and Saturday, Nov. 19, and 12-race cards over the final four days, Nov. 24-27. 

Post time will be 1 p.m. (all times Eastern) on most racing days with admission gates open at noon. Churchill Downs will have special post times on Friday, Nov. 4 (2 p.m.) and Saturday, Nov. 5 (2:15 p.m.) so the races coincide but don't overlap with a simulcast of the Breeders' Cup World Championships from Santa Anita. Admission gates will open at 12:30 p.m. both days.

There will be an early 11:30 a.m. start (gates 10 a.m.) on Thanksgiving Day: a Louisville tradition at Churchill Downs since 1969 where more than 7,000 turkey dinners are served with all the trimmings, making it the largest number anywhere in the region.

Corey Lanerie, who rode 33 winners a year ago, seeks to defend his Fall Meet riding title, but veteran Robby Albarado had the hot hand during the September Meet with 15 winners at the 11-day stand. Steve Asmussen was last fall's leading trainer with 11 victories, but it was Louisville native Dale Romans, who collected a 14th leading trainer crown at his hometown track during the September Meet. Ken and Sarah Ramsey won the crown for 2015 leading owner with 25 wins, and, not surprisingly, they were the top owners in September with a trio of trips to the winner's circle to extend their record for most Churchill Downs owner titles to 27. 

The betting menu will be the same as recent meets and includes the 20-cent minimum "Single 6 Jackpot," which is offered on the last six races each day with a low 15-percent takeout. The Single 6 Jackpot will be paid out only if there is a single winning wager with six winners placed at the required minimum bet value. If there are multiple winning wagers with six winners in the six-race sequence, 90 percent of the net money wagering into the pool will be paid out, and the remaining 10 percent will carry to the Single 6 Jackpot. If there are no tickets will all six winners, 100 percent of the pool will carry to the Single 6 Jackpot. There will be a mandatory payout on closing day.

The first pools of the 2017 Kentucky Derby Future Wager will be offered Nov. 24-27. The traditional pool with 23 individual wagering interests and an "all others" option will return, and so will the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager, which debuted last year and requires bettors to wager on the winning sire for next year's Kentucky Derby winner.