The VIP Chalet at Kentucky Downs. Horsemen’s hospitality is a precedence on the observe. Grace Clark picture

The important thing indicators to measure the success of a race meet had been both up or maintained a lofty stage on the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs got here to an in depth Wednesday.

Purses paid out to horse house owners had been a document for the twelfth straight 12 months. Cash wagered was one other document, growing 4.3 p.c. Area sizes remained among the many highest within the nation with a median of 10.42 starters per race.

There’s one other vital metric at Kentucky Downs: Prioritizing hospitality for horse house owners and guaranteeing horsemen have time.

“Kentucky Downs’ possession led by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone frequently pushes us to current racing another way, to search for methods to innovate and enhance,” mentioned Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ Vice President for Racing. “We put a premium on making a memorable expertise for our visitors, horsemen and our sponsors. Horse house owners placed on the present. We wish to present our recognition and appreciation for that with our hospitality.”

In fact, folks having time can solely be measured anecdotally. Like this:

“It is simply fabulous,” mentioned Ted Nixon, whose Storyteller Racing received its first race at Kentucky Downs. “You all have actually upped the sport in hospitality. I do not know the way you make it extra pleasant.”

“It is a distinctive venue,” mentioned Mary Nixon, Ted’s spouse, co-owner of Storyteller and chairwoman of the College of Louisville’s Board of Trustees. “The purses are outrageous. It brings one of the best jockeys, trainers and horses from throughout. It is a enjoyable ambiance. And yeah, if you win a race, it makes it simply that a lot sweeter.”

On high of it, she added, “We acquired a pleasant, lovely bottle of bourbon out of it.”

All-sources wagering on the meet totaled $83,640,261, up from $80,175,928 final 12 months. A complete of $25,065,000 was supplied in purses for 76 races, together with $10,523,750 in purse dietary supplements from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Improvement Fund. Of the 11 stakes providing $1 million or extra in purses, 10 had been received by Kentucky-breds.

Complete purses paid out this meet remains to be being verified however is for certain to high final 12 months’s $17,863,177 for 73 races. Seventy-two totally different possession entities received races.

Kentucky Downs now not only a home observe however beginning to obtain worldwide consideration. Qatar Racing and the Racehorse Membership’s Irish-bred The Lir Jet came visiting from England to take the 2021 Franklin-Simpson (G2). Final 12 months the Joseph O’Brien-trained Kentucky-bred Reckoning Pressure got here from Eire, by way of Saratoga, and received Kentucky Downs’ mile 2-year-old stakes for Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel and Fergus Galvin.

Then this 12 months, Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s British-based however Kentucky-bred Historical Rome, ridden by former Irish and British using champion Jamie Spencer for coach Charlie Hills, crossed the Atlantic to win the $2 million Mint Thousands and thousands (G3), America’s most profitable turf race exterior the Breeders’ Cup.

“We’re dedicated to a world-class race meet,” Nicholson mentioned. “We hope we’re seeing the beginning of a pattern of abroad horses coming to run at Kentucky Downs.”

Coach Jonathan Thomas talked about the “buzz” about Kentucky Downs even earlier than he received a pair of $1 million races. He mentioned if a coach does not have horses entered to race at Kentucky Downs then house owners wish to know why not.

“It is like a contemporary have a look at one thing,” he mentioned. “We’re form of used to seeing the identical outdated factor, simply in several venues. It is a totally different place. Outdoors of payments and horses not operating nicely, the most important criticism I hear from house owners is ‘the place has the enjoyable gone?’ I feel guys have enjoyable right here.”

Damon Thayer, Kentucky’s Senate Majority Ground Chief, has seen up shut the transformation of Kentucky Downs. He labored for Turfway Park in 1998 when he was charged with rebranding the observe then often called Dueling Grounds after it was bought out of chapter to Turfway and Churchill Downs. (The observe was bought three extra instances, together with to the present possession group headed by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone in 2019.)

“Sure, the monetary success is there with the deal with being up,” mentioned Thayer, who attended 5 of the meet’s seven days. “But it surely additionally has a cool vibe issue going for it. I additionally assume the status of the meet is beginning to get baked in throughout North America. It was once form of a unusual, novelty observe, and there have been some individuals who would not run right here. Now all people is coming. All of the jockeys are right here, all of the trainers, the massive outfits. It exemplifies what is going on proper with Kentucky racing.”

Kentucky Downs was love at first sight for James Atkins of Virginia, co-owner of Hidden Class, who received a $250,000 Keeneland September Yearling Gross sales allowance race on opening day and returned to complete an in depth fourth in Wednesday’s $500,000 Pepsi Untapable.

“I cherished it there… I am positively coming again,” Atkins mentioned. “A bunch of my buddies wish to come, too.”