Dirt, synthetic surfaces both in Turfway Park's renovation plans
Some of those adjustments, particularly hikes to race purses, were immediate. More grandiose developments are in the works, too.
Chip Bach, general manager of Turfway Park, said CDI is in the planning stages of not only tearing down and rebuilding the grandstand as part of a $150 million project but also changing up the surface.
“It’s sitting on the same drainage field. Our expectation when we put it in in 2005, they thought that it would maybe have an eight or nine year shelf life,” Bach said. “Obviously it has exceeded that, and it’s still performing well.
"But as everything else, it’s pretty worn. It’s had thousands of races ridden on it, thousands of hours training on it, so I think a new race track would be welcomed here at Turfway.”
“That will provide an opportunity for people and horses to stay in Kentucky, to train in Kentucky, and to race for great purses in Kentucky,” he said. “I think it’s a great move for the circuit. I think we’re going to be a great place to live year-round.”
In the meantime, the horsemen who already call Turfway Park home in the winter have enjoyed the 132% increase in purses from the same meet a year ago.
“Our field size has been insane. It’s been great,” said Bach, who has worked at Turfway since 1999. “The 11-horse fields that we’ve been putting out haven’t been completely discovered yet by the betting public, but we’ve added some changes, like a 15% takeout on our Pick 5. We’ve always had one of the lowest Pick 4 takeouts.”
Last year, 35 of the first 64 races at Turfway were run with purse sizes between $5,100 and $8,000. This year, the lowest purse of any of the first 64 races was $9,000.
On an average night, horses are running for a share of $24,609 per race as opposed to $10,572 last year.
“Churchill has brought the resources to us that are very handicapper-centric," Bach said. "They’ve already made some great changes. They have staked a lot of purse money to give us respectable purses day to day but have also tried to make betting on our races more appealing.”
Although it's a small sample size so far -- eight race days -- field size has increased on average from 18.13%, from 8.77 horses per race in 2018 to 10.36 in 2019).
While such statistics typically lead to a rise in handle, that reaction has yet to be realized, with Turfway's numbers down 5.6% thus far.
“The handle has been good, but can always be better,” Bach said.
Turfway Park, previously known as the second iteration of Latonia Race Course, opened in 1986. Churchill wound up purchasing the facility after originally considering building its own northern Kentucky track. The transaction prevented a battle for race dates, with purse hikes fueled by funds garnered from historical horse racing machines that will be part of the new Turfway facility upon its completion.