Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes The Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes was an English Thoroughbred horse race intended to become an annual race, but was run only one time on 18 March 2009 at Kempton Park Racecourse in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey. Open to three-year-old European horses, it was raced clockwise at a distance of nine furlongs ( miles, app. 1800 metres) on Polytrack. The winner of the race was guaranteed one of the twenty starting spots in the mile (10 furlongs) 2009 Kentucky Derby held on the first Saturday in May on the dirt track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race
Marquis Downs Friday and Saturday from late May to the first Saturday of September. Standardbred racing is conducted for the following four weeks, also every Friday and Saturday. A few stakes races are held at Marquis Downs, most notably the Saskatchewan Derby, Prairie Lily Sales Stake and Heritage Day which showcases the Saskatchewan breds. The minimum purse in 2007 was $3,000 and the Heritage races featured a $100,000 purse. Marquis Downs Marquis Downs is a horse race track in the Exhibition subdivision of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It features both thoroughbred and standardbred horse racing. Marquis Downs opened in 1969 with Thoroughbred racing.