posted on 2/6/2013 12:54 pm
The 121st Kentucky Futurity, final leg of trotting's Triple Crown, will be raced with a revised format on Sunday, October 6, 2013 at The Red Mile.
Historically the Futurity has been raced in the "heat" format with a
race off (third heat) sometimes required to determine the winner. This
fall, the Futurity will be converted to elimination races and a final on
the same afternoon, with the winner of the final being the Futurity
champion.
Red Mile Director George Segal explained the thinking behind this
decision, "Eliminating the possibility of a third race in the same
afternoon has been done with the welfare of the horses in mind.
"The Breeders Crown races come directly after The Red Mile Grand
Circuit this year and we recognized the need for an immediate adjustment
to the Futurity format."
There are a few more
changes to Red Mile Grand Circuit events this fall. The Allerage Farms
Free For All (FFA) open races will return to the elimination and final
format to facilitate their inclusion as a leg of the new FFA series at
The
Meadowlands. The open events will race their eliminations (if
necessary) on
Sunday, September 29 and return for the finals on October 6. The
Allerage Farms mare races will have no eliminations and will be raced on
the October 6 card as well.
The Moni Maker 3YO
filly trot and Nadia Lobell 3YO filly pace will be raced on Saturday,
November 30 as part of the fall meet at The Meadowlands. The payments
for those races have been reduced slightly and reschedule to require a
nomination fee of $1,500 due March 15 and a $2,000 sustaining payment
due April 15.
The Red Mile 2013 Grand Circuit meet
begins on Thursday, September 26 featuring the Bluegrass Series events
with an evening post time of 7:00pm through Saturday and a 1:00 matinee
card on Sunday.
Week two is all afternoon racing at
1:00pm led by the International Stallion Stakes for freshmen. The
Tattersalls Pace and its filly companion stake, the Glen Garnsey
Memorial, will be
raced on
Saturday, October 5th and closing Sunday is Futurity day.
Complete information on the racing schedule and stakes payments may be accessed by clicking on the Stakes and Late Closer Payment Schedules tab under the Racing heading .
