What’s rarer – five $1 million races on a single card, or a horse running in the same stakes race five years in a row? Answer: Doesn’t really matter. Both rarities will converge during a record-breaking Saturday at Kentucky Downs, the turf-only track that will host five $1 million races on an afternoon featuring a fifth straight start by Arklow in the Kentucky Turf Cup. Arklow, at 7-2, is the second morning-line choice behind Gufo at 7-5 in the Grade 2 Kentucky Turf Cup, a 1 1/2-mile race that anchors a 12-race card starting earlier than normal, at 11:30 a.m. Central. The Turf Cup goes at 4:45 p.m. as race 10, directly preceded by the Grade 2, $1 million Turf Sprint (race 9, 4:10), with both being telecast live on CNBC as “Win and You’re In” events toward the Nov. 4-5 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. The two WAYI races are linchpins in what will be easily the richest day in the 32-year history of Kentucky Downs, the south-central Kentucky track that has seen its purses go through the roof, thanks mostly to year-round revenues accrued from its slots-like historical horse racing machines. Including bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, total purses for Saturday are projected to max out at more than $6.5 million. Single-day wagering to surpass the track-record handle of $20.8 million set on this corresponding date last year also can be expected, especially with a dark Saturday on the New York Racing Association circuit. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! The other $1 million races, all of them Grade 3 events, are the Mint Million (race 5, 1:45), Ladies Turf (race 8, 3:30), and Ladies Sprint (race 11, 5:20). The remarkable Turf Cup streak compiled by Arklow began when he won the 2018 renewal. He then was second in 2019; won again in 2020; then was second again in 2021. All four starts came when the now 8-year-old horse was ridden by Florent Geroux, who will be back aboard Saturday breaking from post 4 in an oversubscribed field of older horses. Thirteen are entered, but only as many as 12 can start in a two-turn race over an undulating, teardrop-shaped oval that’s 1 5/16 miles in circumference. “He likes it at Kentucky Downs,” said Brad Cox, who trains Arklow for Donegal Racing and Joseph Bulger, “and when a horse likes it, you take advantage of it because there are a lot of horses that do not like it.” Aside from an obvious preference for the course, Arklow enters in encouraging form after finishing a fast-closing second in the July 31 Bowling Green over the Saratoga turf in his first start in nearly 10 months. Arklow earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure in the Grade 2 Bowling Green, marking his 11th triple-digit Beyer in 37 career races. “He’s all class, no doubt about it,” said Cox. “We were really happy with his comeback effort, especially knowing he needed it and how it would set him up for another run in the Turf Cup.” Still, there’s Gufo to beat Saturday. Just two weeks after winning the Grade 1 Sword Dancer for the second straight year, Gufo will be back in action, breaking from post 8 under Joel Rosario. Gufo earned a 104 Beyer in his rallying Sword Dancer score on the Aug. 27 Travers undercard at Saratoga, marking the fifth straight triple-digit Beyer for the 5-year-old horse. “I never run back in two weeks, and all the experts say you need five or six weeks between races,” his trainer, Christophe Clement, said this week from New York. “But I say, let’s keep it simple, right? This horse came out of his race with an amazing amount of life. He’s sound, looking great, eating up, all that. I couldn’t find a rational reason not to run, and I can still run back in the Turf Classic,” a Grade 1 race on Oct. 8 at Aqueduct. “Let’s go.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Besides the two favorites, who have combined for nearly $5 million in earnings, other notables in the Turf Cup lineup include Admission Office (post 7, John Velazquez), an eye-catching winner of the Grade 3 Arlington in June at Churchill Downs; Temple (post 3, Jose Ortiz), winner of the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream Park in March; and Red Knight (post 1, Gerardo Corrales), a New York-bred who’s been first or second in 17 of 28 starts while earning nearly $900,000 for owner-breeder Trinity Farm. With the favorites all being stretch-running types, the early pace of the Turf Cup figures to be set by Breakpoint, a last-out winner of the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita, with maybe Keystone Field and Highest Honors giving closest chase for the first mile or so. Temple, Red Knight, and Keystone Field are among four starters for Mike Maker, the all-time leading trainer at Kentucky Downs, along with Glynn County. Maker has won the Turf Cup a record four times (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019). The Saturday forecast for Franklin, Ky., calls for a 70 percent rain chance and a high of 77.