New Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, jockey Corey Lanerie and owner Chester Thomas’ Allied Racing came away as the 2016 Ellis Park meet champions. But stealing the show as far as size of the crowd for Monday’s closing-day trophy presentations was track superintendent Glenn Thompson, who was honored by the Kentucky division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association for a half-century of caring for and sweating over the track surface.

Trainers, jockeys, officials and Thompson’s family poured into the winner’s circle, with HBPA board member Mike Bruder saying, “You spent endless hours working on the track to ensure a safe surface for horses and jockeys. We thank you Glenn for all you have done.”

The 80-year-old Thompson started at Ellis Park at age 15 selling programs and has spent at least 50 years as the “trackman.”

“Now this is not a retirement party, I want you to know,” Bruder told Thompson. “This is recognition. Not retirement. Don’t start that stuff.”
Said Thompson: “I appreciate it very much. I love them all, I always did. It’s the horses and the game.”

“Glenn is one of the best trackmen around,” said trainer Jeff Barkley. “I don’t think you’re going to see too many trackman working at 1 in the morning to get a track ready to race — or even train. I come in at 4:30 every morning, and he’s out there working that track. And he’s already been out there two or three hours. Sometimes it’s longer than that. You can’t beat Glenn.”

Asmussen, who made a last-minute decision to move his Indiana string to Ellis Park shortly before the meet began, won the trainer’s title with 16 victories out of 73 races. That was five more than second-place Ian Wilkes, who had a huge meet in going 11 for 40. Dale Romans got hot late to be third with 10 wins out of 42 starters.

“You couldn’t do it without the owners, without Steve having faith in me to run the barn,” said Christy Hamilton, who this spring was promoted to an assistant trainer in the wide-spread Asmussen operation. “It means a lot that Steve knew that the job was going to get done, and it’s going get done right and win races. That’s what we’re here for.”

Hamilton heaped praise on barn foreman Hugo Morales and the entire crew. “If it wasn’t for him, my job would be a million times harder,” she said. “He has everything on point. He’s the one getting the horses ready for the races and sending them over when I’m on the front side. Everybody talks about how pretty our horses’ braids look. I have (Morales) thank for that. He braids all their manes. He cares so much about these horses, and makes sure everything is running smoothly. It takes a team.

“The leading trainer never even came into play. It was something I hadn’t even thought about, didn’t even think about it until this week when someone congratulated me earlier. I said, ‘We’re only three wins ahead.’ And they said, ‘No, you wrapped it up.’ I grabbed an overnight (entries sheet) and saw Ian Wilkes had only two in (the last two days). That’s when it set in. It’s very rewarding.”

Allied Racing went 6 for 25, its wins and starts both topping the meet, while also having four seconds and a pair of thirds. Midwest Thoroughbreds had four wins out of 20 starts to be second. Allied Racing tied Jack Frost, with four wins apiece, for the 2015 title.

“This is a tribute to Marshall Godsey and his hard work and Buff Bradley and their dedication to running here at Ellis Park,” Thomas said, referring to his trainers who were part of the presentation, along with the owner’s father, Phil. “They did a great job with these horses. I also dedicate this to my dad, who will be 92 in October.

“We’re just blessed to be here. This is a tough game. It takes a lot of luck. You get hooked up with good people. The riders did a nice job. (Track owner) Ron Geary did a fabulous job. The credit goes around. We ran everything we had here — and then some. I mean, literally. This is a fun meet. We live 40 minutes from here in Madisonville, so this is our home. This is pretty cool.”

Lanerie captured his third Ellis Park riding title, which was awarded in absentia as he was riding at Parx near Philadelphia. His pal Robby Albarado accepted the award, getting their mutual friend, Dr. J.P. Morgan, to put a cardboard picture of Lanerie’s face in front his for the trophy presentation.

Lanerie won 26 out of 125 starters. James Graham rallied late, including two wins Monday, to go 23 for 142, with two more victories than Miguel Mena (out of 142 mounts) and Brian Hernandez Jr. (80 mounts).

Arturo Aparicio was the winningest apprentice with four victories.

Ladies handicapping session before Monday’s closing card

Ellis paddock analyst Megan Devine is staging a Ladies Handicapping Seminar — men are welcome, but encouraged to come with a female — beginning at 10:30 a.m. Central Monday in the open-air beer garden near the paddock. The closing-day program also is Fan Appreciation Day, with drawings for prizes after each race.

Ellis horses have big day at Kentucky Downs

Ellis long has produced high-quality horses out of its 2-year-old program, but the expectations were even more so this year with the enhanced purses. At that was on display in Saturday’s opening-day card at Kentucky Downs.

Horses whose last start was at Ellis won four of 10 races, with three seconds and three thirds. Horses coming out of Ellis Park maiden races finished 1-2 in the $350,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile, with All Right — a good second in his debut at Ellis — winning at 44-1 by a neck over Parlor, a winner at the Pea Patch in his only prior start. Caroline Test, who won her debut and then was an excellent second in the Ellis Park Juvenile against boys, finished second in the $350,000 Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies won by the highly-regarded Lull.

MacCorleot, second in an off-turf maiden race, captured a $130,000 maiden race at Kentucky Downs. Linda, an Ellis Park maiden winner, won right back in a $140,000 allowance, while Sugar Cubeand Bandi’s Gal again were the exacta in a starter-allowance

Ellis Park came up with a very good field for the $50,000 Cliff Guilliams Memorial for Monday’s closing-day card, even amid stiff competition for horses from Kentucky Downs and Indiana Grand in the same week.

Pleuven, winner of Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Wise Dan, heads the field of seven older horses racing 1 1/16 miles on turf.  After that victory, the Phil Sims-trained 5-year-old gelding was seventh in the $100,000 Warrior Veterans at Indiana, but he only lost by 4 1/2 lengths and had an excuse: hitting the gate that took him out of his game. After that, he was a closing third in Mountaineer’s $100,000 West Virginia Speakers Cup, only 1 1/2 lengths behind the surging Watchyourownbobber, who also won the Warrior Veterans.

Louisville-based trainer Brad Cox has two strong contenders in Allied Air Raid and Financial Modeling. Allied Air Raid, who has never run on turf, has yet to win a stakes but has been second or third in six such races. Cox won the first stakes of the meet, the Ellis Park Turf with Sweet Acclaim, who came into that race in similar fashion.

Financial Modeling, the 7-2 second choice, hasn’t raced since he stopped and was distanced in the Oaklawn Park Handicap. But before that he won Aqueduct’s $100,000 Queens County for fun and was a close fifth in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap after setting the pace, after which he was sold to Ten Strike Racing and turned over to Cox.

The Arkansas-bred Trace Creek, the 4-1 third choice, rallied from far back to take Arlington’s Grade 3 Harshen at 44-1 odds, then was sixth in his next two starts.

One Touch was second in last year’s Cliff Guilliams and comes into Ellis off victory in an Indiana Grand allowance race in good time. The lightly raced Naval Gazer makes his turf and stakes debut, though he won an allowance race for fun over the Turfway Park Polytrack.

Flashlight, who has placed in multiple stakes, was claimed three races back by Tim Glyshaw. The trainer was a close friend of Guilliams, Equibase’s Kentucky chart-caller and turf writer for the Evansville Courier & Press until his unexpected death in 2008 at age 52, hours after writing his usual meticulous chart footnotes and writing about Keeneland’s Toyota Blue Grass Stakes.

 Aces and Redhawks to tangle at 6 p.m. inside the Carson Center

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With their first five matches taking place away from home, the Purple Aces will finally be at the Carson Center on Sept. 5 to take on Southeast Missouri State at 6 p.m.  The match will be the first of the season for UE as a part of The Valley on ESPN3 package.

Two matches were played at the SIUE Tournament over the weekend as Evansville put forth its best effort of the season against Green Bay before playing well against the host Cougars before falling by a 3-0 score in both contests.

Rocio Fortuny missed the opening weekend of play at IU, but did not show any signs of rust as she burst onto the scene at SIUE with an effort that saw her named to the All-Tournament Team.  She opened up with 9 kills in a career-high 32 attempts to go along with 5 digs and 4 blocks assists.  Against SIUE, Fortuny posted 8 more kills and 5 digs.

Saturday’s opener against Green Bay saw the Purple Aces notch 34 block assists, finishing the day with 34 block assists, a team total of 17.0.  That was the most for UE since notching 17.0 against UT Martin, three years to the day – Sept. 3, 2013.

Pacing the UE squad defensively has been junior Erlicia Griffith.  After finishing with nine blocks in the IU Invitational, Griffith added eight more block assists against Green Bay.  For the season, she has notched 1.42 blocks per set, second in the MVC.  McKenzie Dorris of Southern Illinois leads the league with 1.44 per set.

Mildrelis Rodriguez continues to be the Aces’ top offensive force.  She has 38 kills on the season, an average of 2.53 per set while recording at least seven in each match.  Rodriguez notched 217 kills as a freshman.  Defensively, the sophomore ranks second on the squad with 33 digs, 2.20 per set.

After opening the season with a 3-1 win over New Orleans, the Redhawks have dropped their last five matches.  Included in that tally are losses to Northwestern State, UAB and Radford in a weekend trip to the UAB/Samford Challenge in Birmingham, Alabama.  Krissa Gearring is their top offensive player, notching 4.87 kills per set.  She has posted a total of 112 kills in just six matches.  Rachel Poole has posted an unbelievable 152 assists, 8.94 per set.  Defensively, Jade Mortimer has posted 116 digs, which translates into 5.04 per game.