FRANKLIN — Kentucky Downs may put on an all-turf meet, but that doesn’t mean its horses are all turf.

Three contenders for the May 3 Derby at Churchill Downs — Louisiana Derby winner Tiztastic, Rebel Stakes winner Coal Battle and Jeff Ruby runner-up Flying Mohawk — ran last fall over the Kentucky Downs grass course. In addition, Kentucky Downs maiden winner Ballerina d’Oro is in the May 2 Kentucky Oaks after capturing New York’s Gazelle Stakes (G3).

Turf-to-dirt long has been a handicapping angle, though it usually applies to older horses. Because of the emphasis in America on trying to make the Kentucky Derby, most trainers with the spring classics in mind start and keep their talented young horses racing on dirt. But if this year’s Derby-bound trio is an indication, Kentucky Downs — with its $170,000 maiden races and $1 million stakes for Kentucky-bred 2-year-olds — is changing that paradigm.

“Hundred percent,” said Whit Beckman, trainer of Flying Mohawk, who earned his Kentucky Derby spot by finishing second in Turfway Park’s Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) over a synthetic surface. “For that much money? Hey, let’s take a shot and see.”

Tiztastic, after a fifth in his debut on dirt at Saratoga, won a $250,000 Kentucky Downs allowance race for horses offered at sale during Keeneland’s 2023 September yearling sale. Nine days later, he captured the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile.

Put back on dirt, Tiztastic ran well in five Kentucky Derby qualifying races, capped by taking the $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2) in New Orleans. Of his Derby-leading $1,549,800 in purse earnings, $738,300 came on grass.

“Turf allows you an opportunity to run farther earlier,” Steve Asmussen, Tiztastic’s Hall of Fame trainer, said of potential Derby hopefuls running as 2-year-olds at Kentucky Downs. “Kentucky Downs, becoming so significant and accepted, it will become commonplace.”

Asmussen was keen to run Tiztastic at Kentucky Downs for several reasons: The unparalleled money. He thought Tiztastic would like the grass. Ron Winchell, who co-owns the colt with the Coolmore international breeding-racing operation and its partners, is co-managing partner of Kentucky Downs.

“Yes. All of the above,” Asmussen said. “We’d breezed Tiztastic on the turf at Saratoga before his first start and knew he was extremely versatile. I planned to run him at Kentucky Downs probably even before he started.”

The Kentucky Downs performances, he said, “showed that distance was going to be right in his wheelhouse” as they looked ahead to the 1 1/4-mile, $5 million Kentucky Derby.

“Hopefully he can pull off the Kentucky Derby-Nashville Derby double,” Asmussen said, referring Kentucky Downs’ Grade 3 Nashville Derby that offered a $3.1 million purse last year. “We’re extremely excited where we’re at today, looking at the Kentucky Derby. But absolutely I plan on Tiztastic running in the Nashville Derby and making a return to Kentucky Downs.”

After a romping maiden win on dirt at Louisiana’s Evangeline Downs, Coal Battle finished fourth behind Tiztastic in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile.

“I love Kentucky Downs,” said Louisiana-based trainer Lonnie Briley. “It was a mile, a $1 million race and I gave him a shot. I think he had a shot to win. He just kept getting bumped out of the gate. He showed such a turn of foot down the stretch, passed the horses, and galloped out in front. I said, ‘There’s a little more to this guy.’”

There sure was: Coal Battle won four straight stakes, including a victory over Tiztastic in Oaklawn Park’s Rebel Stakes (G2), before finishing third in the Arkansas Derby (G1).

Part-owner Jayson Werth, the standout outfielder on the Philadelphia Phillies’ 2008 World Series champions, has said Flying Mohawk was bought with the goal of running at Kentucky Downs. Flying Mohawk finished a good second in a mile maiden race at Kentucky Downs, and the target advanced to the $1 million American Turf (G1) on the Derby undercard. Finishing second in the Jeff Ruby redirected Flying Mohawk to the Derby, which will be his first start on dirt.

In the last 10 years, 89 individual 2-year-olds that ran at Kentucky Downs went on to win at least one stakes on dirt, according to industry statistician Equibase, which classifies synthetic surfaces in its dirt stats. Those horses have won 162 dirt stakes overall, including 57 with graded status. That includes Grade 1 winners such as Angel of Empire (Arkansas Derby), Art Collector (Woodward, Pegasus World Cup), Wet Paint (Coaching Club American Oaks) and Heavenly Love (Darley Alcibiades and dam of last year’s 3-year-old champion Sierra Leone).

Tiztastic is from the first crop of Coolmore America’s stallion Tiz the Law, the Belmont winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up in 2020’s COVID-adjusted Triple Crown. Tiz the Law never ran on turf, but Tiztastic’s versatility is a big selling point. (The young sire had three sons sell for more than $1 million apiece at the recent OBS April 2-year-old in training sale.) Adrian Mansergh-Wallace, head of sales for Coolmore America, believes Kentucky Downs’ purse money for 2-year-olds and Tiztastic’s success during the Derby prep season will encourage more owners and trainers to make a Kentucky Downs stop on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

“Let’s not forget that Tiztastic won twice at that Kentucky Downs meet last year,” Wallace said. “It doesn’t happen often nowadays. But it goes to show, I think, that turf racing does lend itself to more frequent racing. Tiztastic proved that and ended up winning a huge amount of money in doing so. And obviously that didn’t preclude him from having a very successful dirt career as well.”

Epicenter thriving in stallion career

Champion Epicenter, who put Bowling Green in the spotlight during the run-up to the 2022 Kentucky Derby, is thriving as a stallion at Coolmore America’s Ashford Stud in Versailles.

Now the middle of his third breeding season, Epicenter has fully recovered from a catastrophic injury sustained in his final race, the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. His first foals are yearlings.

“Epicenter must have an amazing mind,” said Adrian Mansergh-Wallace, head of sales for Coolmore America. “To go from running in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and being at the peak of fitness, to having to go through two life-saving surgeries to save him as a stallion prospect (and) he went through quite a long rehab. But he never missed a beat. He retired here to Ashford Stud the following February and covered a full book of mares.

“He handles adversity, he handled his racing career with aplomb and he handles his second career equally as well. He’s been very popular here at stud. He’s a horse we’re very proud of. If his progeny can show the same resilience, the same mental fortitude, I think he’ll be a horse we’ll be talking about and looking at in pedigrees for a long time to come.”

The eventual Kentucky Derby runner-up was bred by and born on Westwind Farms, the 1,000-acre Bowling Green farm owned and operated by brothers Mike, Brent and Kevin Harris. The son of the sensational young stallion Not This Time was purchased for $260,000 at Keeneland’s 2020 September yearling sale by Ron Winchell, co-managing partner in Kentucky Downs and The Mint Gaming Hall properties in Franklin, Bowling Green, Williamsburg and Corbin, Ky.

Having put away main rival Zandon, Epicenter appeared to be the Derby winner when 80-1 shot Rich Strike shot up the rail to get by in the final strides. Off a season that included victories in the Louisiana Derby (G2) and Travers Stakes (G1), the Steve Asmussen-trained Epicenter was voted 3-year-old champion.

Derby Day at Kentucky Downs and The Mint properties

The Mint Gaming Hall locations in Franklin, Bowling Green, Williamsburg and Corbin offer free admission and parking for Kentucky Derby Day (and every day) wagering, historical horse racing gaming and sports betting. Mint Rewards Club members can earn up to $1,000 in free play with The Mint’s Derby Day drawings at The Mint Kentucky Downs, The Mint Bowling Green and The Mint Cumberland in Williamsburg.