La Troienne Stakes La Troienne Stakes The La Troienne Stakes is a Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares, age four and older, over a distance of miles held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. It is on the same day as the Kentucky Oaks, on the day before the Kentucky Derby (which is held on the first Saturday in May) . The current purse is $300,000. This race was upgraded to a Grade I for its 2014 running. The event was originally called the Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap until 2006. Then it was renamed to Louisville Breeders' Cup Stakes
Churchill Downs in 1875. His father-in-law, Richard Ten Broeck, was an accomplished horse breeder and trainer, and introduced Clark to horse racing, attending the English Derby at Epsom Downs outside London. Churchill Downs filled a void in Louisville left by the closing of Oakland and Woodlawn, two earlier race courses. The then-rural location was along Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks, allowing for easy transport of horses. Clark, who preferred longer races to the relatively short ones that had become popular by the 1890s, was running short of funds, and in 1894 sold the track to a syndicate led by William E. Applegate.