Ellis Park is a player focused track, with a hight number of starters per race and increased purses from Instant Racing for 2014!

With more top flight trainers than ever coming to Ellis Park and one of the top jockey colonies in the country, the racing at Ellis Park in 2014 is sure to be competitive as well as exciting.

Both dirt and turf racing is conducted in the summer and the meet is annually highlighted by the Gardenia Stakes (GIII) August 9, 2014.

For the complete 2014 Ellis Park horse racing calendar, click here.

Ellis Park 2014 Summer Racing

Ellis Park horse racing dates: July 3 - Labor Day
Ellis Park horse racing schedule: Friday, Saturday, Sunday plus the 4th of July and Labor Day, plus a few optional Thursdays.
Ellis Park horse racing post times: Post time is 12:50 pm CDT.
Ellis Park horse racing wagering information:  Wagers available may include: Win, Place, Show, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta, Daily Double, Pick 3, and Pick 4.  Exotic wagering minimums - $1 Exacta, $1 Trifecta, $.50 Pick 3, $.50 Pick 4, $.50 Pick 5, $.10 Superfecta, $1 Super High Five.

Bet Ellis Park horse racing online with TwinSpires.com and watch it live on TwinSpiresTV!
 

Ellis Park Racetrack Information

Main track (dirt): 1 1/8 miles, oval with 7 furlongs and 1 mile chutes
Distance from last turn to finish line: 1,175 feet
Width of homestretch: 100 feet
Width of backstretch: 86 feet

Inner turf course: 1 mile, oval


About Ellis Park Racetrack

If you want to see one of Kentucky’s finest racetracks, you actually have to go to Indiana – or do you? Ellis Park was built in 1922 on the north side of the Ohio River, which forms the boundary between the two states – or at least it did in 1792 when Kentucky joined the union. The river keeps shifting, so the border keeps getting redrawn as the states haggle over territory.

Officially based in Henderson, Kentucky, Ellis Park was first imagined as a stop-over for horseplayers on their way to the winter session in New Orleans. That turned out to be a bad business move, and the track was forced to shut down after just three years. Local businessman James Ellis bought the track (then called Dade Park) in 1925, built a terrace grandstand and introduced pari-mutual betting. The facility was renamed in his honor in 1954.

Louisville-native and sports fan, Ron Geary, bought the track from Churchill Downs, Inc. in 2006. Geary has threatened more than once to close operations because of mounting debts and a lack of purse money, but as of 2012, Ellis Park was still open for thoroughbred racing between July and September.

Ellis Park was based on the design for the Saratoga Race Course in New York. The main track is nine furlongs of dirt, with a one-mile turf course added in 1993. The highlight of the racing year is the $100,000 Grade 3 Gardenia Stakes (one mile, dirt, 3-year-olds and up) for fillies and mares. This is the only graded stakes run at Ellis Park and one of just four stakes races on the calendar.