Churchill Downs releases stakes schedules for September, Fall Meets

Edited Press Release

Churchill Downs Racetrack announced stakes schedules for its upcoming September Meet – which features and an 11-day racing schedule from Friday, September 16 through Sunday, October 2 – and its traditional Fall Meet – which kicks off a 21-day run on Sunday, October 30 and will lower its curtain with its anticipated Thanksgiving/Closing Weekend celebration that will conclude on Sunday, November 27.

The two schedules will have more than $3.2 million in combined purses.

The September session, an important part of the Churchill Downs racing schedule for the fourth consecutive year following its unveiling in 2013, features nine stakes races. Four stakes have earned graded status and three are listed events.

The meet also features the return after a one-year absence of the $100,000 President of UAE Cup, a 1 1/4-mile race for Arabian horses.

Combined stakes purses for the September Meet total $1.125 million.

Fall Meet highlights are headed by the Thanksgiving/Closing Weekend events led by the 142nd running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap (G1) for three-year-olds and up on Friday, November 26; the 101st running of the $200,000 Falls City Handicap (G2) for fillies and mares ages three and up on Thanksgiving Day; and the “Stars of Tomorrow II” program on Saturday, November 27 devoted exclusively to racing among two-year-old Thoroughbreds and headed by the $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) and $200,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) for juvenile fillies.

Sharing the spotlight with the historic Clark Handicap on the post-Thanksgiving “Black Friday” will be the $200,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2), the last graded stakes event of the year exclusively for three-year-old fillies on turf, and the $70,000-added Dream Supreme overnight stakes for fillies and mares, three-years-old and up, at six furlongs.

The Thanksgiving Day racing spotlight will also shine on the $100,000 River City Handicap (G3) for three-year-olds and up on turf.

The 2016 Fall Meet schedule features 13 stakes events with total purses of $2.08 million. That schedule consists of nine graded stakes races and four overnight stakes contests. Each of the latter will offer a purse of $70,000-added.

The opening Saturday of the September Meet is highlighted by the renewals the $150,000 Iroquois Stakes (G3) for two-year-olds and $200,000 Pocahontas Stakes (G2) for juvenile fillies. Those 1 1/16-mile races open the respective “Road to the Kentucky Derby” and “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” points series that will determine the participants in the 2017 editions of the $2 million Kentucky Derby (G1) and $1 million Kentucky Oaks (G1).

The tests for juveniles are also part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win & You’re In” series that will ensure the Pocahontas winner a guaranteed spot in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and the Iroquois winner a place in the field for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), both to be run at Santa Anita Park on Saturday, November 5. “Win & You’re In” race winners also earn entry fees and travel stipends for their Breeders’ Cup events.

Joining those races among four stakes contests on the first Saturday of the September Meet are the $100,000 Locust Grove Stakes, a race for fillies and mares ages three and up that will be run this year as a Grade 3 contest, and the $100,000 Open Mind Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares ages three and up.

The meet’s stakes schedule will conclude on Saturday, October 1, with a trio of stakes races headed by the fourth running of the $175,000 Lukas Classic for three-year-olds and up, a listed 1 1/8-mile race designed as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) that was renamed last year to honor Hall of Fame trainer and four-time Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks winner D. Wayne Lukas.

The other stakes on that program are the $100,000 Ack Ack Stakes (G3) for three-year-olds and up at a mile, and $100,000 Jefferson Cup Stakes, a listed race for three-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

The Clark Handicap is the only Grade 1 event on the September and Fall Meet racing schedules and the 1 1/8-mile test was won in 2015 by Effinex, runner-up to Triple Crown hero and eventual Horse of the Year American Pharoah in his previous start in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland.

Other recent Clark winners include multiple stakes winner Hoppertunity (2014), Eclipse Award champion Will Take Charge (2013), 2011 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Shackleford (2012) and two-time Horse of the Year, turf champion and champion older male Wise Dan (2011).

Past Clark winners also include Hall of Famer, 1997 Kentucky Derby winner and three-year-old champion Silver Charm (1998); champion three-year-old filly Surfside (2000); and 2005 Horse of the Year, champion older horse and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Saint Liam (2004).

The Fall Meet kicks-off on Sunday, October 30, with the anticipated “Stars of Tomorrow I” for rising two-year-old stars. That event for possible Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks hopefuls for 2017 is topped by a pair of $70,000-added overnight stakes events – the Street Sense and Rags to Riches Stakes – which will be run at a mile on the main track and the latter of which is limited to fillies.

Winners of four of Churchill Downs’ September Meet stakes races also will earn automatic nominations to important Fall Meet stakes events at the Louisville, Kentucky, track. The first-place finishers in the Pocahontas and Iroquois will be nominated, respectively, to the Golden Rod and Kentucky Jockey Club. The Lukas Classic victor will automatically be nominated to the Clark Handicap, and the winner of the Locust Grove will earn a free nomination to the Falls City Handicap.

The Fall Meet’s Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod winners will continue a Churchill Downs tradition by earning automatic nominations to next spring’s marquee races for three-year-olds. The victor in the Kentucky Jockey Club will earn an automatic nomination to the 2017 Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown, while the filly that takes the Golden Rod will be the first of her gender nominated to compete in the Kentucky Oaks.

Changes in the 2016 September Meet stakes schedules from 2015 include:

The $100,000 Locust Grove has been upgraded by the American Graded Stakes Committee from a listed stakes to a Grade 3 event

The Dogwood and Jefferson Cup have been downgraded from Grade 3 to listed races

The Jefferson Cup’s distance has been extended by one furlong from a mile to 1 1/8 miles on turf

The schedule has been expanded with the addition of the $100,000 The President of UAE Cup for Arabian horses

Changes in the 2016 Fall Meet stakes schedules from 2015 include:

Schedule positions of the $200,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2) for sophomore fillies at 1 1/16 miles on turf and the $100,000 Commonwealth Turf for three-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf have been switched

The Commonwealth Turf will now be run on Saturday, November 12, and the Mrs. Revere will be renewed as part of the Friday, November 25, holiday racing card that also features the Clark Handicap and Dream Supreme Overnight Stakes.