Turfway Park opens Wednesday night with bigger purses
Turfway Park's winter-spring meet opens Wednesday night with bigger purses for stakes races.
For example, the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), the only graded race of the meet, will have a $700,000 purse, up from $600,000 in 2022.
Other stakes on the calendar are the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks, $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic, $300,000 Rushaway, $300,000 Latonia Stakes, $250,000 Animal Kingdom Stakes, $130,000 Gowell Stakes, $130,000 Holiday Cheer, $150,000 Cincinnati Trophy and $150,000 John Battaglia Memorial.
The meet's Kentucky Derby points preps are the Battaglia (20-8-6-4-2) on Feb. 25 and the Jeff Ruby (100-40-30-20-10) on March 25.
The meet runs through April 1. Racing will be held Wednesdays through Saturdays with a 5:55 p.m. EST post time Wednesday-Friday and a 12:45 post time Saturday.
For purposes of leading trainer, jockey and owner in last year's meet, Equibase splits it into two sections, roughly December and then January-April. Combining those, the top trainer for the entire 2021-22 meet was Brad Cox with 18 wins. William Morey was next with 17.
Cox has two entries Wednesday, one Thursday and four Friday.
Among jockeys, Gerardo Corrales was the runaway leader last season with 77 wins with Rafael Bejarano next at 30. Corrales has six mounts Wednesday, seven Thursday and six Friday.
There was a three-way tie for leading owner in 2021-22. Jerry Jamgotchian, GenStar Thoroughbreds and Andrew Warren had six wins each.