2018-19 Media Guide Kentucky’s Winter Racetrack • Home of the Jeff Ruby Steaks & Bourbonette Oaks 2019 Jeff Ruby Steaks winner Somelikeithotbrown. Coady Photography TURFWAY PARK MILESTONES August 27, 1959 April 9, 1986 May 19, 1990 Latonia Race Track opens in Florence, Ken- Jerry Carroll and partners purchase Latonia Summer Squall wins the Preakness Stakes, tucky, running a 34-day meet. Highest for $13.5 million and rename it Turfway becoming the first Jim Beam Stakes winner one-day attendance is 11,415; top one-day Park. Price Pike, which fronts the facility, is to take a Triple Crown race. handle is $427,647. The name recalls the renamed Turfway Road. original Latonia, which operated from 1883 January 1992 to 1939 about 10 miles north of Florence. September 14, 1986 Hansel becomes the first Jim Beam Stakes Trained by Jack Van Berg, Alysheba breaks winner to earn an Eclipse Award, taking top September 9, 1968 his maiden in Turfway’s third race. Famously 3-year-old honors for his wins in the 1991 Jim On the first day of the Fall Meet, Latonia pres- dismissed as “the pony from Latonie” by Beam, Preakness, and Belmont stakes. ents the first Thoroughbred race in Kentucky training legend Woody Stephens, Aly- to be run at night. sheba later wins the 1987 Kentucky Derby May 2, 1992 and Preakness, finishes second by a nose Lil E. Tee becomes the first Jim Beam Stakes September 24, 1969 in the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Classic, is 1988 winner to win the Kentucky Derby. Judes Song wins at 241-1 and pays $484.40, Horse of the Year, and retires as the then-richest March 27, 1993 highest win payoff in the track’s days as Thoroughbred in history. Latonia. Prairie Bayou wins the first Jim Beam Stakes March 27, 1987 to carry a $600,000 purse. He later wins the April 1, 1972 J. T.’s Pet wins the first Jim Beam Stakes to Preakness and becomes the race’s second Big Dot wins the first Spiral Stakes, estab- carry a $500,000 purse. Eclipse Award champion. lished by General Manager John Battaglia for horses “spiraling up” to the Kentucky Derby. September 9, 1987 July 22, 1994 Pick 3 wagering makes its Kentucky debut at Full-card simulcasting begins in Kentucky. March 22, 1974 Turfway Park. Deleterious, Quipid, and Bob Twinkletoes September 24, 1994 score a rare triple dead heat in Latonia’s February 28, 1988 Turfway presents the first running of the eighth race. Riding Mean Action in the eighth race, Kentucky Cup Day of Champions. The Classic’s Patricia Cooksey earns her 1,203rd career first winner is Preakness and Belmont winner March 31, 1979 victory and becomes the winningest female Tabasco Cat. Latonia records its first $1 million day when jockey in history. bettors wager $1,021,493 on a card that December 28, 1994 includes the Spiral Stakes. April 2, 1988 Turfway opens The RaceBook at Turfway The Jim Beam Stakes gains Grade II status. Park, a state-of-the-art simulcast facility. December 7, 1980 Latonia becomes the first Kentucky track to September 8, 1988 March 31, 1995 offer Sunday racing. Turfway inaugurates intertrack wagering in Serena’s Song becomes the only filly to win Kentucky by sending its entire card to Ellis the Jim Beam Stakes. She is later the race’s March 27, 1982 Park. Two months later the track sends its third Eclipse Award winner and retires as Jim Beam begins its 17-year sponsorship of signal to Louisville Downs. racing’s then-richest female. the Spiral Stakes. October 2, 1989 September 23, 1995 September 18, 1982 Winning Colors, who in 1988 became only the On Kentucky Cup Day, trainer D. Wayne Lukas Latonia becomes the first Kentucky track third filly to win the Kentucky Derby, wins her wins a record four stakes on one card, includ- to offer simulcast wagering when the 1982 final career stakes in the Turfway Budweiser ing the Classic with 1995 Kentucky Derby Marlboro Cup is beamed in from Belmont Park. Breeders’ Cup. and Belmont winner and eventual 3-year-old champion Thunder Gulch. 2 September 21, 1996 September 16, 2000 April 7, 2005 The Kentucky Cup Classic achieves Grade III A record Kentucky Cup Day crowd of 11,090 Turfway runs its last race as a dirt track, a status. watches Spain win the Turfway Breeders’ Cup one-mile claiming event won by Lucky Creek, on her way to winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. with Rafael Mojica Jr. aboard for trainer October 26, 1996 Murrell Farmer. Boston Harbor becomes the first Kentucky November 28, 2001 Cup winner to win a Breeders’ Cup race. Turfway sets a new precedent for rewards by July 30, 2005 Winning the Juvenile race at both events, sending 90 FasTrack Rewards members on GTECH sells its one-third share in Turfway to he later wins the Eclipse Award as champion an all-expense-paid trip to Harrah’s Casino in the track’s two remaining partners, Keene- 2-year-old. Laughlin, Nevada. land Association and Harrah’s Entertainment. March 23, 1998 March 23, 2002 September 7, 2005 Fifty winning tickets cash in on the largest Carrying a $500,000 purse, Turfway’s premier Turfway Park becomes the first track in North Pick 6 in Turfway history: $1,474,380. race gains sponsor Lane’s End Farm and is run America to race on Polytrack. The night’s as the Lane’s End Spiral Stakes. Winner Per- first winner is Regal Reproach, a 6-year-old March 29, 1998 fect Drift is later third in the Kentucky Derby. gelding trained by Eric Reed and ridden by Turfway’s signature race is run for the last Inosencio Diego for owners Jerry Brumley time under the Jim Beam aegis and one day September 4, 2003 and Kay Reed. Regal Reproach runs the mile late, postponed by damaging high winds. Turfway becomes the first track in the nation in 1:40.72. to install the Super Carrel, a state-of-the- September 26, 1998 art individual handicapping and wagering September 17, 2005 Silver Charm and Wild Rush dead-heat for station. Turfway hosts its first College Scholarship win in the Kentucky Cup Classic. Reraise wins Day, giving away ten $1,000 scholarships on the Kentucky Cup Sprint and will later win the September 13, 2003 Kentucky Cup Day. Breeders’ Cup Sprint and an Eclipse Award. Cajun Beat wins the Kentucky Cup Sprint, a prelude to winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. March 25, 2006 January 15, 1999 Off at nearly 49-1, With a City becomes the Keeneland Association, Harrah’s Entertainment, February 9, 2004 Lane’s End Stake’s highest-priced winner, and Dreamport Inc., a division of GTECH, Jockey Mike Rowland dies of head injuries paying $99.60, and the first to win on Poly- announce an agreement to purchase Turfway sustained in a three-horse spill at Turfway track. The Bourbonette Breeders’ Cup attains Park for $37 million. The sale is completed on February 4, the first fatality at a Kentucky Grade III status; Lemons Forever runs third in March. track since 1975 and the first ever at Turfway. and goes on to win the Kentucky Oaks. March 27, 1999 March 12, 2004 April 6, 2006 Turfway’s signature race is sponsored for the Jockey Rafael Bejarano wins seven races on Apprentice jockey Julien Leparoux ends the first and only year by Gallery Furniture and one card, a Turfway record. Winter/Spring Meet with a record 167 wins, is run as the GalleryFurniture.com Stakes. March 20, 2004 topping by 17 the mark set by Rafael Beja- Stephen Got Even gets the winner’s share of rano in 2004. the record $750,000 purse. Sinister G wins the Lane’s End Stakes at 16-1 and headlines a track record $106,848.20 August 30, 2006 September 25, 1999 Superfecta payoff. Turfway introduces Turfway Concessionaire, The Kentucky Cup Classic is run for the first March 26, 2005 a subsidiary responsible for the track’s food time as a Grade II race. Third in that race, Cat and beverage service and in-house catering. Thief will later win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. 2004 Kentucky Cup Classic winner Roses in May wins the world’s richest race, the Dubai October 5, 2006 July 12, 2000 World Cup. Nine days after losing apprentice status, Turfway introduces FasTrack Rewards, a Julien Leparoux wins the Fall Meet riding title player loyalty program patterned after similar with 38 wins, breaking the record set in 1968. programs offered by Harrah’s casinos. 3 March 24, 2007 December 6, 2009 May 7, 2011 A record crowd of 23,815 turns out to see Brian Troop of Barrie, Ontario, qualifies at Animal Kingdom becomes the second Spiral Hard Spun win the Lane’s End Stakes. Turfway for the NTRA/DRF National Handi- Stakes winner to also win the Kentucky capping Championship and in January wins Derby, joining Lil E. Tee (1992). He is the July 19, 2007 the national tournament. first Kentucky Derby winner in history ever Turfway launches Park Avenue Catering, an to win that race without having previously off-site catering service. December 31, 2009 run on dirt. Apprentice jockey Ben Creed is the Holiday August 2007 Meet’s leading jockey, becoming the first August 4, 2011 FasTrack Rewards adds Elite, Platinum, and graduate of the North American Racing Turfway announces that sponsorship by Win- Gold categories to reward players based on Academy to win a riding title at any track. Star Farm will return all five races comprising level of play.