“A big event every year now.” Kentucky Downs opens this week with big names and record purses.

The fastest seven days of racing take place Thursday with the opening card of the 33rd all-turf meeting at Kentucky Downs.

“It’s like the Field of Dreams,” said jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., the track’s all-time winningest rider with 60 victories on the only European-style course in the United States. “If you build it, people will come. And that’s what Kentucky Downs has done.”

For Kentucky Downs, the unusual has become the norm:

▪ The highest purses in America and among the richest in the world, including juvenile mares racing for a record $170,000 for Kentucky-bred horses, the vast majority of horses racing.

▪ A record $37 million is being offered, including $15 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund for Kentucky-bred horses.

▪ DK Horse’s $3.1 million Nashville Derby on Saturday is the most lucrative race for Kentucky-bred 3-year-olds, behind the $5 million Kentucky Derby. Its $1.9 million base purse alone makes it the richest turf race in America outside of the Breeders’ Cup.

▪ Of the 18 stakes, nine have premium status. Kentucky Downs leads the way with its first-ever premium stake, the Franklin Simpson, reserved for 3-year-old sprinters.

▪ The Franklin-Simpson is part of the new FanDuel TV U.S. Open Turf Championship, a six-race, $2 million-a-day stakes race for Kentucky-bred horses ($1 million for others) on Sept. 7. The $13 million purse on offer for the 12-race card has the potential to be surpassed only by the Breeders’ Cup Championship on Saturday.

As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the winners of the Grade 2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles and the Grade 2 Ainsworth Turf Sprint will receive a paid berth in the corresponding Breeders’ Cup race on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. In addition, Kentucky Downs will pay the entry fees for the winners of the Franklin-Simpson, Grade 3 Mint Millions and Grade 3 Ladies Marathon if those horses are entered in the corresponding Breeders’ Cup race.

▪ In total, 15 stakes are worth at least $1 million for Kentucky-bred horses, including the four stakes for 2-year-olds.

“It’s now a big event every year,” said Brendan Walsh, who won the trainer’s title last year with eight wins, including two stakes. “It’s a huge prize and great racing. The place has developed incredibly in recent years. That’s why everyone goes there.”

And it extends overseas. Last year, Kentucky-bred Ancient Rome came to contest the Mint Millions, his connections attracted by the $2 million purse. Trainer Charlie Hills brings Ancient Rome back to Kentucky Downs to try to repeat. Hills is also expected to send Khaadem (IRE), a two-time winner of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee at Royal Ascot, to Kentucky Downs for the Ainsworth Turf Sprint.

There will be “eight or nine” European horses coming for stakes races and others for non-stakes races, said Martin Panza, co-director of racing operations for Kentucky Downs.

The finest gathering of jockeys outside the Breeders’ Cup will gather at Kentucky Downs. This year, international horse star Frankie Dettori will be in attendance.

As always, the trainer to beat is Mike Maker, Kentucky Downs’ all-time leading trainer in virtually every category, and Walsh looks set to compete in another big way. Others in the running include Brian Lynch, Joe Sharp, Rusty Arnold, Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox, Wesley Ward, Mark Casse, Vicki Oliver, Jonathan Thomas and Eddie Kenneally.

East Coast trainers Saffie Joseph, Christophe Clement, Chad Brown and Graham Motion and West Coast trainers Phil D’Amato, Peter Eurton, Neil Drysdale, Richard Baltas and Richard Mandella are among those sending horses to the meeting.

“Owners ask me, ‘Can you get me ready for Kentucky Downs?’” Arnold said. “Everybody wants to go there. I love it there. It’s my Royal Ascot.”

It’s a seven-day whirlwind of overflow fields crammed into two weeks.

“It’s organized chaos,” Sharp said, “but it’s my favorite place to run.”

Kentucky Downs Meeting

In Franklin

Race dates: August 29, 31 and September 1, 5, 7, 8 and 11

First message: 12:25 p.m. CDT, except September 7, which is at 11:30 a.m.

Reserved places: TheMintKentuckyDowns.com/tickets

General admission: Free in the upper section and heeling at the top of the section

Parking: Free

2024 Kentucky Downs Stakes Schedule

(All races on grass)

August 29: $500,000 bets for big Tapit fans.

August 31: $3.1 million, DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational, Grade 3; $1.5 million, Exacta Systems Ladies Turf Sprint, Grade 2; $1.5 million, Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, Grade 3.

September 1st: Million Dollar Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint; $500,000 National Thoroughbred League Overnight Handicap.

September 5: $500,000 Jeff Ruby A dreamer.

September 7: $2 million, Grade 1 Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson Stakes; $2 million, Grade 2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Downs Turf Cup; $2 million, Grade 2 Ainsworth Turf Sprint; $2 million, Grade 2 AGS Music City; $2 million, Grade 3 Mint Millions; $2 million, Grade 3 Light and Wonder Ladies Marathon.

September 8: $1.5 million for the Global Tote Gun Runner Stakes; $1 million for the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile; $1 million for the Untapable Stakes; $1 million for the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies.

September 11: $1.6 million at the Pepsi Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational; $500,000 at Blackwood Distilling’s Nashville Gold Cup.

The jockey is a young mother. The trainer is a novice. A $1.5 million race awaits him.