Leggy 4,076 Report post Posted November 23, 2020 Churchill Downs Racetrack announced Nov. 23 it will invest $10 million to install a new turf course that will widen the running surface and increase the durability to allow increased turf racing throughout the year at the historic home of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). The capital project will begin immediately after the completion of the 2021 spring meet and be ready for turf racing to resume at the start of the 2022 spring meet. If growing conditions are favorable, the new grass course could be ready for use by the November 2021 fall meet. The current Matt Winn Turf Course, a seven-eighths-of-a-mile oval situated inside the one-mile dirt track, is the original surface when grass racing debuted 35 years ago at Churchill Downs in 1985. It is comprised of four-inch high Kentucky 31 Fescue (90%) and Bluegrass (10%) grown in a three-inch topsoil layer over a 13-inch course masonry sand base. The new and more robust turf course will be a similar blend of fescue and bluegrass and will have a redesigned subsurface. The growing medium will contain a six-inch upper root zone layer created with a blended mix of topsoil and grit sand which will sit on a six-inch lower sand layer constructed with masonry sand. Churchill Downs planted several test plots in the spring of 2019 and selected the best for use in the new turf course. The current track, which is 80 feet wide, was designed with a crown that runs down the center of the track to facilitate drainage, limiting the number of running lanes. The new turf course includes a new state-of-the-art irrigation and drainage system, will be widened to 85 feet, and be designed to use the full width and banking in the turns. It will provide multiple rail movement options with the capacity to accommodate four racing lanes that range from 0-36 feet out and as many as 14 participants per race. Gruff, Baz (NZ) and Patiti 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stodge 1,940 Report post Posted November 24, 2020 I do wonder if this is a move to get more runnings of the Breeders Cup to the track. American turf courses don't look as well managed as European tracks - they can get very firm and rutted so a state-of-the-art turf course, if it can bring the Breeders Cup to Kentucky or stage new valuable turf races, could be a real investment. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leggy 4,076 Report post Posted November 24, 2020 The Breeders Cup has been run in Ky at Keeneland twice in the last 5 years including this year. They already have a state of the art turf course there and the Europeans were not deterred. IMO that course and most of the other major turf courses in the US would be lengths ahead of anything we have here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stodge 1,940 Report post Posted November 25, 2020 18 hours ago, Leggy said: The Breeders Cup has been run in Ky at Keeneland twice in the last 5 years including this year. They already have a state of the art turf course there and the Europeans were not deterred. IMO that course and most of the other major turf courses in the US would be lengths ahead of anything we have here. Keeneland is not Churchill Downs and I imagine there's plenty of competition among the top tracks to host the Breeders Cup. I'm to be convinced the American turf tracks are as good as the European equivalents. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
