| Non-Listed Black Type[1] race | |
| Location | Turfway Park Florence, Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Inaugurated | 1986 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred - Flat racing |
| Website | www.turfway.com |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 11/16 miles (8.5 furlongs) |
| Track | Tapeta synthetic dirt, left-handed |
| Qualification | Three-years-old |
| Weight | Assigned |
| Purse | $75,000 |
The Rushaway Stakes is an American ungraded Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky. It was first run on March 22, 1986, the last year the racetrack was called Latonia. The race is open to three-year-old horses and run over a distance of one and one sixteenth miles (8.5 furlongs).[2] Originally raced on natural dirt, and for the first two years at one mile, since 2021 it has been contested on Tapeta synthetic dirt.[3]
The race is named in honor of the racehorse Rushaway who, on Friday afternoon, May 22, 1936, won the Illinois Derby at Aurora Downs in Aurora, Illinois.[4] That night, the three-year-old gelding was shipped three hundred miles south via express train to the Latonia Race Track in Latonia, Kentucky where on Saturday he won the Latonia Derby. Rushaway's feat of endurance is unmatched and still talked about more than eighty years later.[5] His accomplishment in the Latonia Derby was made even more remarkable because Rushaway was carrying top weight in the eight-horse field by three pounds yet won by 6 lengths and did it in a new race record time for the mile-and-a-quarter distance.[6]