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
Turf Classic Stakes inaugural running was won by the 1986 Breeders' Cup Turf winner, Manila. Other notable winners include two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan and champion turf horses Sky Classic, Paradise Creek and English Channel. Turf Classic Stakes The Turf Classic Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race run in early May at Churchill Downs open to horses four years old and up. It is raced on turf at a distance of one and one-eighth miles and currently offers a purse of $500,000. Formerly known as the Early Times Turf Classic Stakes, it is now sponsored by Old Forester. A major