Ken and Sarah Ramsey won three races at Churchill Downs on Sunday to equal A.J. Foyt III’s 30-year-old record for most wins during a meeting at the historic Louisville
racetrack.
The Nicholasville, Ky. couple – Churchill Downs’ all-time leading owners in races won with 359 – collected their 27
th win on Day 34 of the 38-day Spring Meet when favored
Smittenwithkitten ($7.60), a 3-year-old daughter of Ramsey’s productive stallion
Kitten’s Joy, won the seventh race by 1 ½ lengths. Foyt’s standard came during a unique 93-day Spring/Summer Meet in 1983.
Earlier on the program, they won the second race with 3-year-old colt
Gamekeeper ($2.40) and the third with 4-year-old filly
Blues and Silvers ($3.60). They had a chance to break the record
in the 10
th race finale but
Auston Got Even finished fourth.
“It’s an honor to
tie the record, but that’s kind of like running second and that’s what I
call the first loser,” Ken Ramsey, 77, said via telephone from the
Ramsey Farm in Nicholasville where they were
hosting a family cookout. “We still don’t hold the record. We’re
co-holders and ‘co’ is not in my vocabulary. I think we’ll probably end
up with at least 30 based on my calculations. We got 15 the first half
of the meet and we’re trying to get 15 more the last
half of the meet.”
The Ramseys, who are averaging 0.79 wins per day, appear certain to collect their record 19
th title as the meet’s leading owner at Churchill Downs. They lead
Bert, Elaine
and Richard Klein by 20 (27-7) with 41 races left to run.
The meet ends June
30 and the Ramseys have 12 horses entered in nine races on Thursday and
Friday. The final two cards on Saturday and Sunday have yet to be
drawn.
“I’m pretty sure
we’re going to break the record,” Ramsey said. “I worked for about two
hours this morning going through all the horses I’ve got to see who fits
in the races and we’ve got six horses running
on Friday night. I’m pretty sure we’re going to break it on Thursday or
Friday. I’m not bragging, but I know the horses I’ve got.”
This would be
their ninth at the Spring Meet and first since 2009. They also have won
10 Fall Meet titles, the last of which was 2011.
The Ramseys, who
race their horses in the familiar white and red silks branded with an
“R,” have finished among the national Top 10 owners by earnings six
times since 2004 and each year since 2009. They
also have been among the Top 10 owners in races won every year since
2007. They have been recognized with an Eclipse Award as the nation’s
most outstanding owners on two occasions: 2004 and ’11.