Kentucky Downs’ racing program reached another echelon with today’s announcement that two more of its stakes races have achieved graded status.

The Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint and Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, both worth $350,000 this year with purse supplements for Kentucky-bred horses, were among only eight stakes in the United States and Canada that received new Grade III rankings for 2017. Kentucky Downs and Belmont Park, with three, are the only tracks to gain more than one newly-graded stakes.

Kentucky Downs — the all-grass track whose five-date meet offers the richest purses in America for maiden and allowance horses, along with a lucrative stakes schedule — now has three graded races, headed by the Grade III, $600,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup. The track, with North America’s only European -style course, will race Sept. 2, 7, 9, 10 and 14 in 2017.

Graded stakes are those judged the best in America, with Grade I being the very elite, followed by Grade II and Grade III. The annual evaluations are made by the  Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association’s American Graded Stakes Committee, which rates stakes’ strength based on the overall performances of their participants in recent years in order to provide a guide to the relative quality of bloodstock. To be eligible for grading, a stakes must meet purse minimums and have no restrictions on horses other than age and sex.

The American Graded Stakes Committee met Wednesday to crunch the data and today announced next year’s graded-stakes classifications.

“The graded-stakes upgrades are another important step in the development of Kentucky Downs,” said Corey Johnsen, Kentucky Downs’ president and part-owner. “It’s gratifying to be recognized by the graded-stakes committee for our efforts to improve racing not only in Kentucky but North America.

“This really elevates the quality of our overall racing program. Obviously the graded stakes will attract better horses, but that synergy also will lead horses to run in our other stakes races and improve those. And it motivates stables located outside of the region shipping in for those stakes to add horses on the van or plane for our $130,000 maiden races and $145,000 allowance races.”

The mile Ladies Turf this year was won by Secret Someone over multiple graded-stakes winner Cash Control. Prior winners have included Grade I winner Never Retreat and Sand Springs; Grade 1-placed Danzon and Quiet Royal; and multiple graded-stakes winners I’m Already Sexy, Snow Top Mountain and Miz Ida. Its second winner in 1993, back when the stakes was called the Rachel Jackson and the track was named Dueling Grounds, was 1994 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner One Dreamer.

The strength of the 6 1/2-furlong Turf Sprint, this year won by multiple stakes-winner Successful Native, is demonstrated by the horses that came just short of winning, including millionaire and British Group 1 winner Undrafted and 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint victor Regally Ready.

The graded-stakes committee also gave “listed” designation to Kentucky Downs’ Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies and Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Derby, putting them in the pipeline to become graded. There were a total of 23 new listed stakes across the U.S. and Canada.

University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball opened Great Lakes Valley Conference action with an explosion, defeating McKendree University, 104-58, Thursday night in Lebanon, Illinois. USI sees its record go to 5-0 overall and 1-0 in the GLVC, while McKendree goes to 2-3, 0-1 GLVC.

The Screaming Eagles have won five-straight to start a campaign for the 20^th time in the history of the program.

USI busted the game open in the first three minutes, flying out to a 15-0 lead by the 17:17 mark. The Eagles, who shot over 70 percent from the field for most of the opening half, had its largest lead of the first half, 29 points, when the buzzer sounded for the intermission and went into the locker room with a 54-25 lead.

Eagles sophomore guard Alex Stein (Evansville, Indiana) paced the Eagles with 10 points in the first half. Stein was followed by eight-point halves by junior forward Julius Rajala (Finland) and senior guard Bobo Drummond (Peoria, Illinois). Drummond was making his first appearance in game action since going down with an injury in the season opener against Lake Erie College.

In the second half,  USI and junior guard Marcellous Washington (Lexington, Kentucky) kept their foot on the accelerator and extend the Eagles’ advantage to as many as 48 points twice during the final 20 minutes. Washington exploded offensively in the second half, scoring 18 of his team-high 20 points in the final 20 minutes.

The junior guard came off the bench to shoot a blistering eight-of-nine from the field and four-of-four from long range to lead USI.

Five Eagles joined Washington in double-digit scoring. Stein followed with 13 points, while Drummond and senior guard Cortez Macklin (Louisville, Kentucky) tied for third with 11 points each. Senior guard Jeril Taylor (Louisville, Kentucky) and Rajala rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points each.

As a team, the Eagles shot 53.3 percent from the field in the game (40-75), 66.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc (18-27), and 60 percent from the charity stripe (6-10). USI also won the battle of the boards, 51-29, and outscored McKendree, 57-31, off the bench.

The Eagles conclude the GLVC’s opening weekend and their six-game marathon away from the Physical Activities Center Saturday at 3 p.m. when they visit the University of Illinois Springfield in Springfield, Illinois. The Prairie Stars saw their record to 3-3 overall and 0-1 in the GLVC after losing a close game with Bellarmine University, 67-63, at home tonight.

USI leads the all-time series with Illinois Springfield, 8-3, and has won three of four since the Stars joined the GLVC in 2013-14. The Eagles and the Stars split last year’s conference series with USI winning at the PAC, 85-64, and Illinois Springfield posting a home win, 86-81.