Clark Headlines Churchill's Fall Meet Slate
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The 140th running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (gr. I) is the main event on a schedule of 13 stakes races that carry total purses of about $2 million during the fall meet Oct. 26-Nov. 30 at Churchill Downs.
The Clark is the only grade I race on the 25-day fall stakes schedule that also features five grade II events, three grade III races, and four overnight stakes races.
Dating to the first racing meet in 1875 at the track known then as the Louisville Jockey Club, the Clark Handicap and has been renewed each year without interruption since its inaugural running. The 2014 Clark Handicap maintains its traditional day-after-Thanksgiving spot on the Churchill Downs racing calendar Nov. 28.
The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up is coming off of a memorable 2013 edition in which Willis Horton's Will Take Charge caught and passed multiple grade I winner Game On Dude. The narrow win completed a second-half season surge that earned the D. Wayne Lukas trainee the Eclipse Award as the year's champion 3-year-old.
Churchill Downs will continue its traditional "Stars of Tomorrow" racing programs devoted exclusively to races for 2-year-olds. The program will open the meet Oct. 26 and help conclude the racing session Nov. 29.
A pair of stakes events will be offered on each of those days. "Stars of Tomorrow I" on Oct. 26 will feature two overnight stakes, the Rags to Riches for fillies, and the Street Sense for males, both of which will be run at the one-mile distance.
The closing day "Stars of Tomorrow II" co-features are the $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club and its sister race for fillies, the $200,000 Golden Rod Stakes (both gr. II). The 1 1/16-mile races are part of their respective "Road to the Kentucky Derby" and "Road to the Kentucky Oaks" point series used to determine participants in the respective 2015 runnings of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum Brands (gr. I) and Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) on the first weekend in May.
The Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod join the Clark Handicap in their regular spots on the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend that closes out the fall meet. Leading off that four-day holiday weekend is the $200,000 Falls City Handicap (gr. II), a 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares ages 3-years-old and up. It again will be the racing centerpiece of the Thanksgiving Day celebration at Churchill Downs Nov. 27.
The two other grade II events on the 2014 fall meet stakes schedule are the $200,000 Chilukki for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going one mile Nov. 1, and the $200,000 Mrs. Revere for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles on turf Nov. 15.
The fall meet's grade III races—all of which will be run over the Matt Winn Turf Course—include the $100,000 River City Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles Nov. 8; the $100,000 Commonwealth Turf for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 15; and the $100,000 Cardinal Handicap for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up at 1 1/8 miles Nov. 22.
A pair of overnight stakes are part of the Churchill Downs portion of the Breeders' Cup World Championhips weekend simulcast from Santa Anita Park Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The Dream Supreme, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares ages 3-years-old and up, will be run on Halloween, and the Bet On Sunshine, for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs, will be the co-feature with the Chilukki Nov. 1.
Changes in the fall meet stakes schedule from 2013 include $50,000 purse increases for the Falls City Handicap and Chilukki; $25,000 purse increases for the Mrs. Revere, Kentucky Jockey Club, and Golden Rod; and decreases in purses for four overnight stakes races (the Street Sense, Rags to Riches, Bet On Sunshine and Dream Supreme) from $65,000 to $58,000.