FRANKLIN, Ky. -- No lagniappe here, no enhancing accompaniments, such as an ocean breeze or jazz on Maple Avenue or scallops at Mio Posto. Here, you might have to settle for the Barren River Lake, the Sandford Duncan Inn and the Frosty Freeze, although the Brickyard Cafe is said to have some appetizing catfish. But if you're the sort of person who shuns the frivolous and ponders the essentials, if you're a horseplayer and your focus is betting on horses, then this has to be heaven.
Yes, Kentucky Downs must be horseplayer's heaven: Quality racing, large fields, low takeouts. Dante envisioned a heaven of nine spheres, but for a horseplayer heaven is a racetrack balanced on a tripod of good horses, large fields and low takeouts. And, of course, heaven is unique: All the races are run on turf, on a pear-shaped course that rolls and swells and undulates like a green sea. Sam Houston once shot a rival in a duel here, on this very site, this swath of landscape that once was known as the dueling grounds, and the area is redolent with frontier history, but racing here is more European than anything you're likely to see elsewhere in America. With its purses soaring to a record $1 million a day, Kentucky Downs begins its brief season Saturday, spreading out its five festive and meaningful days of racing over three weeks.
I must point out that on these five days I'll be working for Kentucky Downs, doing the paddock song and dance. Track president Corey Johnsen, who's among the few racetrack operators left that actually know and love racing, invited me to come here a few years ago to lend a struggling racetrack a hand. It sounded like fun, I knew little of the place and curiosity pushed me. I didn't expect to discover horseplayer's heaven.
So what makes Kentucky Downs such a haven for horseplayers? It might seem an audacious assertion, but consider this: For the last two years, betting on the favorite in each race here would have yielded a 22.79 percent profit. Is there any other racetrack in the country, where betting on the favorite is profitable? Probably not.
But it's possible here because of the large contentious fields. Last year, 36 of the 50 races had at least 10 starters. The odds for the typical winner were 5.50-1; for the typical favorite 5-2. No five-horse fields with a 3-5 favorite here. In fact, Kentucky Downs has seen only two odds-on favorites over the last two seasons.
And the payoffs are rewarding across the board in part because of the low takeouts.The takeout, of course, is the cost of betting; it's the money from the pool that goes to the track, the horsemen and the state. Reduce the takeout, and there's more money going back to the bettors. The takeout here on an exacta is 18.25, lowest in the country. The takeout on the Pick 5 is 14 percent, with 19 percent on other multi-race wagers.
"I believe many states offer a takeout rate that negatively affects the overall handle," Johnsen said, explaining that bettors notice and price makes a difference. It's basic economics, increasing sales by reducing price. "We focused on the exacta, which I think is a foundation wager for many horseplayers. ... We wanted to send a message."
And the message is that racing and horseplayers are important. It's clearly a message that's winning over fans and horseplayers, especially those who shun the frivolous and focus on the essentials. Last year, Kentucky Downs' handle jumped 70 percent from the previous season's record, to a daily average of $2.56 million.
That's a dramatically different world from Kentucky Downs Johnsen and his partners purchased in 2007. For the first few years, he said, the track was just surviving. "It's difficult," he said, "to think about innovation and improvements when you're managing a track in a money-losing situation."
The turnaround began in 2011, with the introduction of historical racing machines, the same sort of gaming devices that turned around Oakalwn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. Suddenly, for Kentucky Downs there was another source of revenue. But Johnsen and his partners didn't stuff it into their pockets. They put the money into the racetrack and into purses. The goal, Johnsen said, was to have a positive impact on the Kentucky horse industry and on the sport.
Last year, purses reached $820,000 a day; this season, Johnsen said, they'll exceed $1 million a day, an historic level. And, of course, in accordance with the oldest tradition in the sport, which is to race for the money, horsemen have responded. Many of the horses racing here have come from Saratoga, which just concluded its season -- in other words, they're some the best horses in the country. Among those entered in the opening-day feature, the $250,000 Dueling Grounds Derby, are Global View, winner of the American Turf Stakes, and Medal Count, the Transylvania Stakes winner who ran third in the Belmont Stakes. During the upcoming weeks, the owners and trainers of some of the most powerful stables in the country will come through here, and they won't be looking for the Frosty Freeze.
Finally, I would be remiss if, as a service to horseplayers looking for their personal heaven, I didn't offer some final thoughts on Kentucky Downs:
1. Over the last two years, 59 horses made their racing debuts at Kentucky Downs, with six winning. Five of those successful first-time starters were trained by Wayne Catalano.
2. Horses come to Kentucky Downs from all over the country, but those from Arlington Park and Saratoga have been most successful. Over the last two years, 17 of the 77 starters (or 22 percent) from Arlington and 14 of the 79 (17 percent) from Saratoga won at Kentucky Downs.
3. None of the 24 starters from Mountaineer won here last year.
4. The track's 1 5/16-mile course creates a unique racing dynamic. Although Kentucky Downs has the longest stretch in the country, more than a quarter-mile, it's uphill. And so speedsters and stalkers are most effective in sprints. Last year, in races at distances less than a mile, nine of the 26 winners led virtually throughout, and the typical winner was less the two lengths off the lead after the opening half-mile.
5. But in races at a mile and farther, horses must run uphill on the backstretch. And so in those races, late-runners are most effective. In one-mile races, for example, the typical winner was nearly five lengths back after the opening half-mile.