Cumberland Run’s inaugural live racing meet begins Sunday at The Red Mile

Construction on the planned standardbred horse racing facility in Corbin is slated to begin this summer, but its first live racing meet will officially begin on Sunday.

Photo courtesy of Redmileracing.com

While construction on the planned facility has yet to begin, it had secured live racing dates that will be held at The Red Mile in Lexington.

The 12 dates will run through July 27 with racing on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.

The meet will also include prep races for the Kentucky Sire Stakes Championship and the Commonwealth Series.

Both series are for Kentucky-sired horses, as well as the foals of mares who spent at least 180 days in Kentucky in the years of the foal’s conception.

The meet’s regular races, not counting those funded by the Kentucky Sire Stakes program, is scheduled to average about $45,000 a card while being underwritten by the owners of Cumberland Run.

“Marc (Falcone) and Ron (Winchell) believe in this industry and really want to make a big difference,” said Ted Nicholson, Vice President for Racing at Kentucky Downs who will oversee the Corbin at The Red Mile meet of the majority owners and managing partners of Kentucky Downs. “This is the first step. We thank the racing commission for granting up the dates until Corbin can be up and running and can’t say enough about The Red Mile for working with us.”

Cumberland Run is a joint project between Keeneland and Kentucky Downs.

The project was first announced in 2012.

Vince Gabbert, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Keeneland Association Inc., said in April that construction on the facility off of the Corbin bypass is scheduled to begin this summer with competition scheduled for July 2022.

While initially designed to host quarter horse racing, in 2020 it was announced that the facility would instead host harness racing, commonly called, “trotters.”

In addition, and extension facility will be constructed on property in Williamsburg off of Exit 11.

The extension facility will feature historical racing and simulcast racing.

Gabbert said once the two facilities are completed there will be 200 to 250 permanent jobs, with an additional 300 to 400 jobs at the Corbin facility when it is hosting live racing.