The Jeff Ruby Steaks (a homophone of the word Stakes, for commercial reasons)[1] is a Grade III American thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds at a distance of a one and one-eighth miles on the synthetic track in late March at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky.
[5] In 1988, two years after the track changed owners and was renamed Turfway Park, it was upgraded to a Grade II race and was lengthened to 1+1⁄8 miles.
[5] In 1999 the race was sponsored for one year by Jim McIngvale of the Gallery Furniture chain of retail stores, and was run as the Galleryfurniture.com Stakes.
As part of the sponsorship, the race is referred to as the Jeff Ruby Steaks (similar to other sporting events named for a product).
Winners who would go on to capture at least one of the American Classic Races include Summer Squall (1990),[7] Lil E. Tee (1992),[8] Prairie Bayou (1993),[9] and Animal Kingdom (2011).