By: Matt Hegarty
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a schedule of racing dates for next year that looks nearly identical to the schedule for the past two years.
This is the second year in the row in which there has been no public discord over the dates assignments, following several years of wrangling between Churchill Downs, Kentucky Downs, and tangentially, Keeneland, over dates in September. The sides smoothed over their differences last year just prior to submitting their 2017 applications.
Like last year, Kentucky Downs will continue to hold five live race dates in September, beginning with a Sept. 1 Saturday card and continuing on Sept. 6, 8, 9, and 13. Churchill Downs will pick up the rest of the September dates, running Sept. 14-16, Sept. 20-23, and Sept. 27-30.
For the rest of the year, racing dates will follow the traditional schedule, with Turfway running from January to the end of March, Keeneland holding its 16-day spring meeting in April, and Churchill Downs running from late April until late June. Racing then moves to Ellis Park until early September, then, following the September meets at Kentucky Downs and Churchill, racing resuming at Keeneland for a three-week fall meet. Churchill runs its fall meet directly afterward, with Turfway running in December.
Environmental contamination study approved
Also at the meeting, the commission approved a request from its Equine Drug Research Council to conduct a study seeking to determine the extent, if any, to which regulated or illegal drugs are present in areas of the racetracks frequented by horses and the people who work with them. The request was for $25,000 in funding from the commission to conduct the study.
Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical of the director, said that the study’s administrators will collect environmental samples from areas at all Kentucky racetracks and subject the samples to a gamut of tests designed to detect drugs that are both legal and illegal to administer in the state. The intent of the study is to form a baseline of data to determine whether the drugs are present and could be accidentally ingested by horses, leading to positive tests.
“We’re hoping that this can give us an idea of what we can and cannot detect in the environment,” Dr. Scollay said.
Environmental contamination has become a common refrain among horsemen who have had positives for trace amounts of regulated or illegal drugs. But, according to Scollay, the only study that looked at the subject has since been refuted by its own author, and the industry is in need of scientific guidance.
“This needs to have a factual basis, rather than a speculative basis, which is where I think we are right now,” Dr. Scollay said.
All the commissioners approved the request with one objection, from Gerald Holt, a recent appointee of Gov. Matt Bevin. Holt has frequently objected to projects requiring funding from the state, as well as the commission’s various boilerplate approvals of new gambling machines in use at Kentucky racetracks.
