LEXINGTON, Ky. – Churchill Downs Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky for $46 million, giving the company an additional foothold in a heavily populated area to expand its casino operations. The deal, which came together quickly over the past four weeks, was reached as Churchill was mounting a challenge to Turfway Park by submitting a dates application for the track’s winter dates. Under that proposal, Churchill had said that it would build an entirely new track and casino in the northern Kentucky-Cincinnati metro area if it was awarded the dates. If accepted by the racing commission, the proposal would have likely put Turfway Park out of business. In a release, Churchill said that it would keep Turfway operating under the dates that have been traditionally granted to the track, but that it planned to fund a massive renovation of the facility to make way for the installation of 1,500 historical horseracing machines, devices that are similar to slot machines.  “We are thrilled to welcome Turfway Park to the Churchill Downs racing family,” said Kevin Flanery, the president of Churchill Downs, in a release. “Our team is poised to restore Turfway to its former glory, anchored by northern Kentucky’s first historical racing machine facility.” Turfway Park is currently owned by JACK Entertainment, but earlier this year the company reached a deal to sell the track and a casino in Cincinnati to Hard Rock International. That deal had not closed at the time that Churchill announced its bid for Turfway’s dates. The release by Churchill said that Turfway was being purchased from a partnership that included both JACK and Hard Rock. Turfway’s owners have come under harsh criticism from some members of the state racing commission over the past five years because of their reluctance to install historical horseracing machines at the track. The devices are operated by every other track in the state, and racing commission members had accused Turfway’s owners of dragging their feet on installing the machines in order to protect the JACK casino in Cincinnati from competition. A portion of the revenues from historical horseracing machines go to support purses in the state. Those subsidies have led to record purse distribution at all of Kentucky’s tracks, with the exception of Turfway. Churchill is known for carefully planning out its strategies and making head counts of votes at the commission, and company officials had likely concluded that its bid for Turfway’s dates would be well-supported. As a result, Turfway’s owners would have been left with a worthless property if Churchill was awarded the track’s dates while facing new competition anyway from the new casino Churchill planned to build, giving JACK and Hard Rock little choice but to seek a sale. Under Kentucky law, only pari-mutuel licensees can install historical horseracing machines. Churchill’s deal for Turfway was reached just one month in advance of the Kentucky gubernatorial election, which could have a significant impact on the political appetite for casinos in the state. The incumbent, Matt Bevin, a Tea Party Republican, has rejected plans for expanded gambling and continues to campaign against the legalization of casinos, while his opponent, Attorney General Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has said that he would support a casino bill, in part to raise money for the state’s ailing pension funds. If legislation is passed, racetracks are expected to be leading candidates for casino sites, due to their significant political sway and cultural prestige in a state that relies heavily on economic activity in the equine industry. The state’s existing historical horseracing facilities could easily be converted into casinos. Churchill has invested heavily in gambling facilities in Kentucky since support for Bevin began to wane considerably over the past two years. The company owns and operates a casino at its Trackside training center in Louisville, and earlier this year the chief executive of the company said that Churchill will soon announce plans for the construction of a casino and hotel at its Louisville track, home of the Kentucky Derby. In addition, late last year the company was awarded a harness track and casino license in Oak Grove in the southwestern portion of the state. Construction on that project is well underway. The Race Dates Committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission was already scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss the dates applications of all tracks, and on Thursday, following the announcement by Churchill, the KHRC said the commission would meet in full just prior to the dates committee meeting to discuss approval of the Turfway Park transaction. The full racing commission will meet to discuss the dates applications and the recommendation of the dates committee on Oct. 15. By law, dates in Kentucky have to be awarded by Nov. 1 of each year.