TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1008281
and Ray Reid took over. They took a ma- jor gamble that something would change when it came to Kentucky's gambling laws that would pave the way for their track to become a success. They bet and they won. Eventually, Kentucky lawmakers ap- proved the use of instant racing machines, which look and act like slot machines, at the state's racetracks. The machines have proven to be very popular with gamblers in the area and are what fuels Kentucky Downs' huge purses. Johnsen and Reid could have taken the easy way out and spent their energies counting their money. There is nothing in the laws that require them to do anything particularly special at their racetrack. Yes, with the instant racing machines creating so much revenue, there are purse require- ments they must meet and the purse pot is a big one. But they could be just another racetrack, with, say, a 45-day meet, with- out a lot of big stakes and with a run-of- the-mill dirt one-mile oval over which a lot of races are contested that look an awful lot like what you see everywhere else. Instead, they set out to create some- thing unlike any racetrack in America. Kentucky Downs has only grass racing and it is conducted over the type of course you can't find anywhere else in the U.S. but is common in Europe. It is one-and- five-sixteenths miles in circumference, has upward and downward slopes, and it concludes with a quarter-mile stretch run to the wire. Your horse could be ten in front at the top of the stretch and lose. Your horse could be ten behind the leader