Super Saturday at Ellis 

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Disabled Jockeys Fund-Raiser, Ladies’ Day At The Races;
Learn About Starting Gate, Training & Meet Osorio In AM
HENDERSON, Ky. (July 28, 2016) — Ellis Park joins tracks across America on Saturday to raise money for and awareness about the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, which provides assistance to some 60 jockeys who suffered catastrophic injuries while riding.
PDJF Day is one of three special events staged Saturday at Ellis Park in addition to nine live races. The day begins with “Making of a racehorse: Let’s get started!,” a program that allows fans to see up close and personal morning schooling and how young horses learn to break from the starting gate. It’s also Ladies’ Day presented by T.R.U. Event Rental, with vendors catering to women, hors d’oeuvres and drink specials in the clubhouse’s second-floor Gardenia Room.
“We have a little bit — actually a lot — for everyone Saturday, including a card with full fields that should provide entertaining handicapping,” said racing secretary Dan Bork. “The action starts early with the opportunity to see first-hand some of the inner-workings that go into making a racehorse. Kids can come out and meet their favorite jockeys and come away with a signed pair of goggles while raising money for a good cause. And ladies very well could find their 2017 Kentucky Derby hat.”
 
PDJF Day: Jockeys, fans rally around riders with debilitating injuries
Jockeys are among the most resilient athletes around, but the fact remains that riding racehorses is a dangerous profession. The Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund is a 501(c)(3) charity that since its founding in 2006 has disbursed more than $7 million, mostly to jockey who sustained paralysis or brain injuries.
Ellis Park, the track affectionately known as the “Pea Patch,” puts its own touch on the annual fundraiser. Harley Frey, a horse owner and prominent farmer, donates a truckload of melons, which fans can get for a donation to the PDJF upon leaving the track. This one-of-a-kind venture raises several thousand dollars for PDJF.
The Ellis jockey colony, its deepest in the modern era, will participate in autograph signings throughout the afternoon as riding schedules allow. For a $15 donation, fans can get a signed pair of goggles. The winning jockey also will give a pair to a kid by the winner’s circle after each race.
Racing enthusiasts can buy $1 chances on a Victor Espinoza-autographed poster of Michael Clevenger’s Eclipse Award-winning photo of American Pharoah and Espinoza crossing the Belmont Stakes finish line to complete the first Triple Crown in 37 years. In a separate drawing at $1 a chance, fans can win signed programs from the sport’s biggest events, including Rachel Alexandra’s 2007 Kentucky Oaks and Preakness and American Pharoah’s Kentucky Derby.
Ladies Day presented by T.R.U. Event Rental: 
Women can win prizes in hat and high-heel contests while enjoying free hors d’oeuvres and drink specials sponsored by Republic National Distributing Company in the Gardenia Room. Speciality vendors will be on hand with distinctive merchandise, including For the Love of Hats by Shell, who’ll be bringing her hats and famous feather bowties. Others: Hannah’s Rustic Charm, It Works and Initials, Inc. The event is free.
Starting gate to barn visit to Osorio and Santos chatting with fans
Learn how horses are taught to break from the starting gate – and it’s not the bell to which they react. In a free event staged by Ellis Park and the Kentucky division of the Horsemen’s Protective & Benevolent Association, fans are invited to arrive starting at 7 a.m. CT in the south end of Ellis’ parking lot by the schooling gate in the mile chute near the Ohio River levee. The program will start at 7:30 a.m., with Ellis starter Scott Jordan, who also is in charge of the starting gate for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby, explaining the process while fans are within feet of the action.
All ages are welcome, and afterward the program shifts to third-generation Ellis Park trainer John Hancock’s barn for insight and discussion on what happens in a stable during morning training. Didiel Osorio, last year’s Ellis riding champion, and his agent, Jose Santos Jr., will talk with fans and give signed goggles to kids. 
Fans can cap the morning by watching Ellis Park announcer Jimmy McNerney make his weekly Saturday picks at 9:30 a.m. in the track clubhouse.
First post is 12:50 p.m. CT, with free admission and parking, while adults can also play the Instant Racing Machines. 

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