Turfway Park plans to eliminate its four Wednesday race cards and all but one stakes race from its fall meet, a move track president Bob Elliston says is necessary to keep its daily purses at last year's already depressed levels.

Among the casualties is the entire Kentucky Cup Day of Champions card, which has produced the winners of seven Breeders' Cup races. The Kentucky Cup was reduced to three stakes in 2009 -- the Grade II Classic, Grade III Distaff and Grade III Sprint -- after its two 2-year-old races were dropped.

The winner of last year's Classic, Furthest Land, went on to win the $1million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

"It's just another blow to Kentucky racing," said Mike Maker, who trains Furthest Land. "That's terrible."

Maker has won more races in Kentucky than any trainer, but he said that cuts in race days and purses at Kentucky tracks could make him reconsider where he races.

The only fall stakes that will be run is the $100,000, Grade III Turfway Park Fall Championship. That 1½-mile race is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "win-and-you're in" stakes, and its winner automatically qualifies for the Breeders' Cup Marathon field.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will review the track's planned cuts at its July20 meeting. If the commission approves them, which is almost a certainty, Turfway will run Thursday through Sunday Sept.9 through Oct.3, with 16 cards instead of the previously scheduled 20.

The track also has asked to move its fall post times on Thursday and Friday to 5:30p.m. instead of 7p.m.

"It's unfortunate, but that's what we're about now: cutting days," said Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

"If we lose Turfway, for all intents and purposes, we lose Kentucky racing from the standpoint of a circuit," he said. "It's barely viable now. But we will lose so many of our horsemen who are forced to make other arrangements. ... It's almost not 'if' anymore but 'when' we lose it. That's what's scary.

Elliston said eliminating Wednesdays and moving the $400,000 from the Kentucky Cup races into non-stakes races will allow the track to average about $125,000 a day in purses. That's the same as 2009 and 2008, which he said were the lowest since whole-card simulcasting began in the early 1990s.

Indiana Downs' purses are about double those offered by Turfway after a recent 30percent purse increase, Elliston said. While Indiana Downs closes next week, Turfway will face competition from Hoosier Park, whose purses should be similar to those of Indiana Downs.

Both Indiana tracks have purses enhanced by video slots.

"It's just extraordinary how they've managed to use alternative-gaming supplements to support their purse program, like West Virginia Derby did before, like Pennsylvania did before," Elliston said in a phone interview. "So here we find ourselves having to maintain a level that's not even competitive, honestly."

Elliston noted that every track in the state has made cuts, including Churchill Downs from a five- to four-day race week in the spring, Ellis Park racing three days a week and Keeneland cutting more than $1million out of its fall purses.

The Kentucky Cup was created in 1994 by former track owner Jerry Carroll. The first year, Preakness and Belmont winner Tabasco Cat beat a field that included future Hall of Famer Best Pal in the Classic. The purse for the Classic got as high as $500,000 before being gradually cut to $200,000 last year.

KC Classic winners included Derby and Belmont winner Thunder Gulch and Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm (in a dead-heat).