Kentucky Downs postpones until Tuesday after record betting
Kentucky Downs announced that because of Saturday’s rain and expectations of more inclement weather that Sunday’s 11-race card is being moved to Tuesday. The meet then will conclude with Wednesday’s scheduled card.
“With the steady rain that we had from the fifth race on and the projected forecast for rain overnight and tomorrow, we felt it the prudent thing to do safety-wise for both horses and riders,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ senior vice president and general manager. “With the forecast being much more favorable for Tuesday and Wednesday, it was the right thing to do.”
In addition, the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge’s first live-money tournament scheduled for Sunday now will be on Tuesday’s card. With the postponement, all the contest wagers will be made on Kentucky Downs races, as Monmouth Park does not run on Tuesday. Wednesday’s handicapping tournament will go on as scheduled that day.
Kentucky chief state steward Barbara Borden said that any scratches from Sunday’s card will be reinstated for Tuesday, including those on the also-eligible list. Trainers are advised that if they don’t want to run, their horses must be withdrawn by Monday’s 9 a.m. Central scratch time.
Meanwhile, the weather didn't dampen bettors' enthusiasm for Kentucky Downs' Saturday card. The track smashed its record for single-day wagering on its races with $17,437,731 bet on the 11 races. The previous record was $11,321,492 on the 10-race card held on last year’s corresponding Saturday.
“It’s great that even with an inclement weather day that we were able to have everyone around the country enjoy our races,” Nicholson said. “We are extremely pleased to see so many big-time horses continue to run well here, including Grade 1 winners Arklow and Got Stormy and Grade 2 winners Imprimis and Regal Glory coming away with stakes victories today and many other top horses hitting the board. But these races have gotten very tough, and we’re confident we’ll see some horses who might have been outrun on this day come back and win marquee races.”
Betting on the first four days of the meet comes to $41,389,764. That's $7,430,607 more than four equivalent days last year, when handle totaled $33,959,157, then a record.
Top five days of handle at Kentucky Downs
$17,437,731 - Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020
$11,321,492 - Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019
$10,039,008 - Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018
$8,983,981 - Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020
$8,487,323 - Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017