Best little racetrack in North America opens for its 5-day meet

As we bid a fond farewell to the Saratoga meet, horseplayers have a great opportunity to vote with their wallets for a racetrack that has the crazy notion that it’s possible to prosper by doing things a little differently — Kentucky Downs.

You may not be familiar with the contrarian racetrack in Franklin, Kentucky, about 45 miles north of Nashville, but you should be.

The track offers grass racing — and only grass racing — for just five days each summer over the only European-style course in North America — an undulating 1 5/16-mile course that resembles a bent and stretched paperclip from the air.

In addition to offering free parking and general admission as well as tailgating, management puts up astronomical purses (especially for owners of Kentucky breds), subtracts a reasonable takeout on all wagers and generally puts on a spectacular show with full fields.

It also thinks outside the box when it comes to betting, as evidenced by the Jockey7 wager introduced this year. The new bet offers fans the chance to back the jockey or jockeys whose mounts they think will do the best on the day’s final seven races, using a point system to keep track as the card progresses.

Attributes such as that have made Kentucky Downs the highest-rated racetrack in North America by the Horseplayers Association of North America for three years running. The organization bases its rating on a variety of factors, including takeout, field size, availability of advance-deposit wagering and others.

Don’t miss out on this gem of a meet, which opens Saturday, skips ahead to Sept. 7, 9, and 10 and then concludes Sept. 14. If that’s not out-of-the-box thinking, I don’t know what is.

#RJhorseracing featured races

While racing fans will want to tune in to the $750,000 Woodward Stakes (GI) at Saratoga (airing on NBC Sports beginning at 3 p.m.) on Saturday to see if Gun Runner can cement his status as the favorite to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November, the #RJhorseracing handicapping corps will be looking to make some money at Kentucky Downs.

Gluttons that we are, we’re taking a double helping: the fifth race on the 10-race card, a one-mile, 70-yard allowance race for fillies and mares with a whopping $140,000 purse (if your horse is bred in Kentucky) and Race 8, the Tourist Mile Stakes, a race with possible Breeders’ Cup implications.

Weather adds to the challenge, as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey are expected to dump heavy rain on the area until Friday night, with showers likely Saturday. In fact, Kentucky Downs is expected to decide Friday afternoon whether Saturday’s card will be run as scheduled or postponed.

Our intrepid handicappers aren’t about to let a “yielding” or “heavy” course stop them, however. They like No. 5, Queen Anne’s Lace (12-1 on the morning line), a recent Irish import who just missed in her stateside debut at Indiana Downs, to capture the 5th race. No. 10, Awesome Boss (the 4-1 favorite), and No. 2, Into Summer (5-1), finished second and third in the voting.

Handicapper Mas Yoshinaga becomes the first two-time winner of the Review-Journal breath mints with his pithy observation about the anticipated winner: “Second in U.S. debut; 4th in Gr3 two back; shot at a price!”

In the eighth, the $400,000 Tourist Mile, the corps is torn between No. 1 Hootenanny (5-1) and No. 8 Irish Strait (the 2-1 favorite), who tied for the win. No. 5 Western Reserve (6-1) is the pick for the show.

Join the fun next week. Sign up for an email alert or download free past performances at https://www.reviewjournal.com/horseracing starting Wednesday, select the top three finishers and write a few sentences explaining how you see the race unfolding and your betting strategy. Then either email them to me or post on Twitter (using the #RJhorseracing hashtag) by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.