VENUE MAY 23rd @ CHURCHILL DOWNS

[RUFFIAN]

Meow 🐱 Meow 🐱 Meow 🐱

The Choice Was Purrrrty Clear 👌

Churchill Downs The Place

To Furnish Racing Cheer

5 STAKES 😊 ~ NO VAMPIRES 🧛

POST TIME: 1:00 🕐 PM EDT

[JolyB]

Looks as if Churchill has put together a very strong card. With few other tracks offering stakes races, trainers have few choices and the very full fields reflect that. The Matt Winn in the past has been a relatively small race, but this year's version has drawn an exceptionally competitive field. I can't wait to see how Maxfield runs off of his long layoff.

It did surprise me that Churchill was able to card a Grade 3 race with 50 Derby qualifying points to the winner for such a puny purse. The $150,000 purse looks very stingy compared to other Derby qualifiers that offered 50 points to the winner, such as the Risen Star [each division] $400,000; the Southwest at $750,000 or the Rebel for $1 million. I'm sure that Churchill would explain that with no fans at the race, the purses can't be as large. That's probably true, but the handle on Saturday will probably be very large and much of it through the betting portal they own. But it strikes me that they have found an alternative form of currency to attract horsemen, namely the much desired Derby qualifying points. By assigning them to a race on their track, they can attract entrants and offer a much smaller purse than a race with a field like this would normally command.