KY Downs Press Release

[highnote]

KY Downs and Blood Horse showing HANA a little love in a press release today:

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...tes?source=rss

"Kentucky Downs offers some of the best betting value anywhere," Jeff Platt, president of the Horseplayers Association of North America, said in the Kentucky Downs release. "Exacta takeout is the lowest in North America. Combine that with a 19% takeout on other exotic bets and great average field size, and I am not surprised that the handle trend is up."

"HANA's recognition of our product offering means a great deal, because we want Kentucky Downs to be known as the 'horseplayers' racetrack,'" Kentucky Downs president Corey Johnsen said in the release.

[Track Collector]

I tried to visit last year, but racing was cancelled before the first post due to thunderstorms.

KD looks like an interesting and unique place (the track is described as European-type, with its' unusual shape and gently rolling hills in various places.). Will definitely look to visit for the first time in the next year or two.


.

[highnote]

I visited a few years ago when HANA first formed. The track executive I spoke with was very friendly and knew about HANA. We had a nice chat. It's a beautiful track. Definitely worth making a trip to see it.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

It's certainly nice to see a track keep takeouts lower. Looks like KY leads the way, with three of the top five HANA ratings, and all five KY thoroughbred tracks in the top 15.

Kentucky Downs, or the Dueling Grounds as I like to remember it, is a nice facility but more like an OTB than a race track. When it opened in 1990 it was intended to draw the Nashville players to a simulcasting site, so viewing live racing on a handful of dates was not a priority. I drove up from Alabama for many a weekend race days back when it first opened.

Haven't played it too much online over the years, especially with the intermingled races with Turfway, but with the low takeouts I'll be taking a pretty close look at the cards next month.

[PoloUK6108]

Made it to Ellis for the first time this year, and I'm determined to make it down to KD this fall. Place looks fantastic, I love turf racing.

[DeanT]

I'm looking forward to playing. I have played KD for a number of years, but last year they really blew it out of the water handle wise and the pools were good.

Nice to see guys like Cory owning and running racetracks. He is a tourney player and loves handicapping. Too few of those in positions of power in the sport, imo.

Dean

[DeanT]

They had a nice opener and a nice progression.


>>>>>>>>>

http://blog.horseplayersassociation.....html?spref=tw

In 2011, while instant racing was being conducted, Kentucky Downs had an average handle of $918,863.

In 2012, fresh off the largest takeout decrease in horse racing history, all the while making the races even more and more bettable, their average daily handle was $1,514,146.

Opening day in 2013, after carding some nice races, and adding another low rake bet, handle set an opening day record of $2,837,897, or 108% higher than last year.

In 2011, the entire meet garnered about $3.6 million in handle. They were close to doing that yesterday.

We congratulate Kentucky Downs on their opener and wish them continued success.

[cj]

Originally Posted by DeanT

Opening day in 2013, after carding some nice races, and adding another low rake bet, handle set an opening day record of $2,837,897, or 108% higher than last year.

Don't take this wrong, I'm all for what they are doing at KD and hope others follow suit. But please, lets not get in the habit of calling 14 and 15% takeouts low rake bets. Lower and certainly heading in the right direction, yes, but not low. Just my opinion...

[DeanT]

Originally Posted by cj

Don't take this wrong, I'm all for what they are doing at KD and hope others follow suit. But please, lets not get in the habit of calling 14 and 15% takeouts low rake bets. Lower and certainly heading in the right direction, yes, but not low. Just my opinion...

Fair enough point.

This is a messed up sport where Keeneland wanted to offer 12% WPS take earlier in the decade and the other tracks said no - "too low"

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Wow! Nice increase on the handle. I thought the card Saturday was great, though pretty tough. Some very interesting ponies showed up.

One thing I thought was a bit odd was the purse structure - a couple of maiden races with $75K purses, one with $90K (2YO), NW1X of $94K and NW2X of $96K. I guess I'm used to seeing that money spread out a bit more for the winners - but some nice purses for sure, regardless.

Hope tomorrow's card doesn't have bad weather....

[DeanT]

Hi Hoof,

There is a fair amount of info on KD via this blog.

http://supportkentuckydowns.blogspot.com/

The earliest post looks at configuration, shippers etc and I found it informative.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Hello DeanT,

Thanks for posting the link to Lenny's blog. Lots of good info, and he had some awesome picks on Day 1 of the meet.

I feel bad that I might have jinxed the track with my comment about the weather. Races canceled after the 4th, with some local lightning strikes. Ouch. Looks like they'll make up the canceled races though, with 13 race cards the next two Wednesdays....

[DeanT]

We were talking about that card while it was going on. A quick look at the handle numbers for the first three races were outstanding. They were ahead of their pace of Saturday's opener, on a Wednesday.

It's a shame it was cancelled...... Of course, not forgetting the fact about the lightning storm on the fan.

Speed seemed to still be large. The blinkered lone speed in the first won easily and paid $15. The filly in the fourth was a nice price considering her apparent speed edge.

It'll be interesting to see what the rain does to the course bias.

[BIG49010]

Great racing Saturday, Channing Hill won with 4 for Catalano and they all came from left field. I think the first winner Poker Player passed everyone in the straight turning for home, not sure where the poles are so I don't know how far it is from the turn to the wire. I wish they ran a few more days, I have driven past there, but they were not racing at the time of year I was there.

Gary Steven's made some interesting comments about how it takes a very athletic horse to run down the hill and negotiate the turns.

[DeanT]

They had a great meet.

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/th...tters-records/