Eye-popping purses at Kentucky Downs attract attention for seven days of racing from Aug. 29 to Sept. 9, but more turf champions have been made on the aptly named Turf Champions Day on Sept. 12 at Woodbine's European-style E. P. Taylor Turf Course, arguably the finest turf course in North America.Only three tracks in the world host four or more Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races on a single day: Longchamp, in Paris; Meydan, in Dubai; and Woodbine, in Toronto, which holds Turf Champions Day on Saturday, Sept. 12.The King's Plate, the top race for Canadian bred 3-year-olds, is Canada's largest racetrack party of the year. Turf Champions Day is the best single day of races in Woodbine's eight-month long meet, featuring world class turf runners, trainers and jockeys.Last year, Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by William Buick for Godolphin, won the GI Woodbine Mile and went on the win the Breeders' Cup Mile, repeating race victories the connections accomplished with Master of the Seas in 2023 and Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in 2022. Both Notable Speech and Modern Games also won the Eclipse Award for Champion Male Turf Horse.She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}), trained by Cherie DeVaux, won the GI E.P. Taylor Stakes last year (and a berth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf) and went on to win the 2025 Eclipse Award for Champion Female Turf Horse. Local competitor Moira (Ghistzapper), Canada's Horse of the Year in 2022 trained by Kevin Attard, won the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and the Eclipse Award for Champion Female Turf Horse in 2024.Other than Shisospicy (Mitole) in 2025, who can recall a stakes winner at Kentucky Downs that has gone on to win a Breeders' Cup or Eclipse Award?The trainer with the best recent track record on Canada's Turf Champions Day is Appleby, whose European shippers owned by Godolphin have won the Woodbine Mile three of the last four times; the 11/2-mile GI Canadian International two of the last three times, and have twice won the one mile GI Summer Stakes (a challenge series race for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf) and GI Natalma Stakes (a “win and you're in” race for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf).The only GI Turf Champions Day race that Appleby has yet to win is the E.P. Taylor Stakes, run at a distance of 11/4 miles for a purse of C$750,000. European horses have won the race 23 times since the E.P. Taylor Turf Course was inaugurated 32 years ago.Expected to start in this year's Woodbine Mile is 5-year-old Deterministic, whose trainer, Miguel Clement, believes is the best turf horse on the continent currently. Deterministic has won four Grade I contests in a row, most recently the Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga on Whitney Stakes weekend, when the E.P. Taylor Turf Course reopened for racing after a year-long, C$10 million overhaul. Nominations close August 26 and will be announced August 28.“We're excited to see our marquee turf races back on one of the most celebrated racing surfaces in the world,” said Woodbine Entertainment Group CEO Michael Copeland. “With four Grade I races, international-caliber competition, and major Breeders' Cup implications, Turf Champions Day once again puts the spotlight on Woodbine and Canadian racing.”Named for Canada's legendary horseman Edward Plunket Taylor, the 120-foot-wide course is long enough to run a mile race around one turn. At 12 furlongs long, it is longer than the 10 1/2-furlong course at Kentucky Downs and equal in length to courses at Longchamp and Meydan. Where Belmont Park's 1 1/2-mile dirt oval “Big Sandy” is the main track at Belmont, the equally long E.P Taylor Turf Course is Woodbine's main outside track.Like turf courses overseas, Woodbine's main turf course is asymmetrical. The first of three turns is a 30-degree left at the clubhouse, where the course straightens for a furlong. The second turn feels almost like a full 180 degree turn, on a radius as tight as Woodbine's seven furlong inner turf course. The far turn, a whopping 2 1/2 furlongs, begins gradually on radius so wide that it hardly feels like a turn when riders round it. Then it tightens as it approaches the stretch, propelling horses onto outside lanes like a slingshot.Jockeys who make their move in mid-turn, as they do around shorter courses, run the risk of tiring their horses in the 1,440-foot-long stretch. Woodbine's home stretch, longer than a quarter mile, is 30% longer than the 1,097-foot-long stretch at Belmont, making it tricky for horses trained to switch leads for shorter stretch runs. The course has rewarded European runners who save their fastest turn of foot for the final furlong.“The E.P. Taylor is such a magnificent North American turf track with a wide and lengthy stretch that allows every runner the chance to run its true race,” said Woodbine's race caller, Robert Geller, a native of England who grew up in Australia before calling races in Hong Kong, Seattle and Toronto. “Races run at a mile and a half start in front of the stands with a steady incline as they begin the climb toward the backstretch and make for a great spectacle.”The course has made Turf Champions Day at Woodbine a proven test of champions.“I tell everybody who will listen to me that it's definitely the best turf course in North America, maybe the world,” said trainer Mark Casse, whose barn campaigns horses at Woodbine for U.S.-based owners Gary Barber, DJ Stables, and Charlotte Weber.NBC Sports, which has a partnership with the Breeders' Cup through 2030, last broadcast Turf Champions Day in 2023 but will skip it again this year, opting instead to broadcast two Grade II races from Kentucky Downs on Sept. 5 and Notre Dame football's home opener on Sept. 12.As a result, North America's only day of four Grade I Breeders' Cup Challenge Series contests and the best international horse racing in Canada won't get the same attention in the U.S. as the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Playoffs.The post Four Tests of Turf Champions, One Day in September appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.