Churchill Downs, whose brand has been battered by a spate of deaths over the past month, will shift its live race meet to Ellis Park in western Kentucky as of next weekend, the track announced on Friday afternoon. Racing will continue at Churchill through the end of this weekend, but live racing will then shift to Ellis Park as of June 10, using the condition book already published by Churchill. Ellis, a racetrack-casino that Churchill bought last year for $79 million, is located approximately 120 miles from Louisville in Henderson, Ky., and it was scheduled to open its own live meet on July 7, running through Aug. 27. Churchill will remain open for training during the suspension of live racing, a Churchill spokesperson said.  The decision was made on Friday despite the conclusion of several recent assessments of the track’s racing surfaces that did not identify deficiencies in the surfaces. In addition, a three-day review of the fatalities led by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority did not uncover any “obvious or specific” commonalities among the dozen deaths, according to HISA. “Even though the investigations and expert reports have indicated no surface issues, in an abundance of caution, and in alignment with a recommendation from HISA, CDI has elected to relocate the meet in order to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all safety and surface protocols and integrity measures in collaboration and consultation with nationwide experts,” Churchill said in a statement. Seven of the deaths occurred in the lead-up to the May 6 Kentucky Derby, and two occurred as a result of injuries sustained in races on the Derby undercard. HISA said in its own statement, released an hour after Churchill’s, that it had made the recommendation to suspend racing at Churchill “to allow for additional comprehensive investigations” into the deaths.  “Given that we have been so far unable to draw conclusions about the cause of the recent equine fatalities at Churchill Downs, and therefore have been unable to recommend or require interventions that we felt would adequately ensure the safety of the horses running there, we made the decision to recommend to CDI that they temporarily suspend racing at Churchill Downs while additional reviews continue,” said Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of HISA. The Kentucky HBPA, which did not respond to an earlier phone call on Friday, released a statement from its president, Rick Hiles, shortly after Churchill made the announcement that said the organization was opposed to the decision. “Horsemen question the purpose of this unprecedented step, especially without conclusive evidence that there is a problem with the racetrack at Churchill Downs,” Hiles said. “We all want to find solutions that will improve safety for horses. However, we need to discuss allowing trainers and veterinarians to use therapeutic medications that greatly lessen the risk of breakdowns. Drastic steps, such as relocating an active race meet, should only be considered when it is certain to make a difference.” The Kentucky HBPA, along with a large number of other state HBPA affiliates, have been highly critical of a decade-long movement in racing to put in place more restrictive rules on therapeutic medications. The HBPA affiliates have also filed several lawsuits in an attempt to stop HISA and its rules from being implemented since the authority was authorized by federal legislation passed late in 2020. On Thursday, Churchill announced three new house rules that would restrict an extremely narrow set of horses from racing at the track, including those that have finished 12 or more lengths behind the winner and those that have raced four times in an eight-week period. Churchill also announced that it would stop paying a portion of the race’s purse to every entrant and return to a policy of only paying out purses to the top five finishers. In the Friday statement, Churchill said that those new rules would apply to horses racing at Ellis Park. Churchill was scheduled to hold the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes, along with a strong supporting card of stakes, on July 1. That card will now be run at Ellis. Animal-rights organizations began protesting in front of Churchill when live racing resumed at the track on Thursday, and the spate of deaths has drawn widespread coverage from both local and national media organizations. Churchill, a publicly traded company with gambling properties in states across the U.S., is highly protective of its brand, and the company, along with the racing and breeding industries as a whole in Kentucky, has an outsized influence in the Kentucky legislature. That influence has allowed the state racing industry to win exclusive rights to operate casinos in the state, and, earlier this year, the legislature authorized sports betting by restricting the licenses to racetracks. “What has happened at our track is deeply upsetting and absolutely unacceptable,” said Bill Carstanjen, the company’s chief executive, in the track’s Friday afternoon statement. “Despite our best efforts to identify a cause for the recent horse injuries, and though no issues have been linked to our racing surfaces or environment at Churchill Downs, we need to take more time to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all of the details and circumstances so that we can further strengthen our surface, safety and integrity protocols.” Any decision to relocate racing would likely need approval from the state’s racing commission, which has been cooperating in the probes into the deaths. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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