Before the Kentucky Derby: Inside Churchill Downs | Stadium Wonders

Welcome to the iconic Churchill Downs.

Greatest classic come the fans, 100,000 strong, a new record at famed Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

The first postwar running of the turf thriller finds the fans in a holiday mood as usual and Southern hospitality.

This place is massive.

I mean, 200 acres.

You're really taking care of 152 years of tradition.

They're off in the Kentucky Derby.

You know me being here for 34 years and growing up here my whole life and Derby's always been a part of my life even when I was a child and something that the the city of Louisville just embraces and uh goes all out for.

Kentucky Derby is the Kentucky Derby and that's where you wanna be.

This is the most famous horse racing track in the world.

Churchill Downs has stood in Louisville, Kentucky's South End since 1875, the same year it hosted the first Kentucky Derby.

And the race has been run every year since, making it the longest running continuously held sporting event in the United States.

The track was founded by Meriwether Lewis Clark Junior, the grandson of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.

The younger Clark had traveled to Europe and was inspired by the great racetracks of England and France to build something like them back home.

But the track was far from a commercial success in its early days, and Clark never lived to see what Churchill Downs has become.

The home of American horse racing and the site of the sport's most high-profile event.

Ask anyone what's the first thing that comes to mind when they think of horse racing, and odds are they'll say the Kentucky Derby.

The race lasts just 2 minutes, but the revelry lasts all day, and every year, more than 150,000 people descend upon Churchill Downs to be part of it.

OK.

We're going to go out here and we're actually going to enter on the racetrack.

So now we're standing in the paddock runway.

So the runway of history, right?

So it goes out directly to the track and like I said, it's the pathway to every jockey and every horse right before every race, including the Kentucky State.

As you can see there's a lot of feet wonderful organic material out here.

That's why I wore boots, yeah.

We redid the paddock, uh, for Derby 150.

It took us 2 years to build it.

So the paddock itself now is a big stadium arena style.

You know, you have people up at the paddock terrace looking down.

You have people in each one of the clubs that come out.

You have standing room, this beautiful standing room area.

The big thing when, uh, they designed this.

New paddock was that when you enter those big grand paddock gates, you're framed out and looking at the twin spires.

You see horses, you see spires, you see tradition.

You got the whole, the whole thing all right here.

Yep, absolutely, yeah, it's pretty incredible.

Great, let's walk down the, the racetrack runway like every horse would.

I figured that's, you know, if we're out here we got to do that.

Yes, you got to see it.

And then you can see because we have to flex up to 150,000 people on derby day.

Where do we put all of them, you know.

So we really build out a lot of things in our infield and we create luxury spaces out in the infield for fans, but we also create that festival environment, you know, when it comes to the infield.

So you have the starting pole all the way down to the left and you've got the finish line right there.

So literally those folks are flanked by the pagoda where the trophy presentation is happening for the Kentucky Derby and they're seeing everything.

They've got a terrorist to come out and watch what's happening not only for the trophy, but.

They're watching this final stretch of the horses really competing for the win.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

It's a perfect spot.

So each suite is about 80 people.

So I mean between these two towers, that's about 800 people that we're entertaining and it's, it's a very luxurious suite-like atmosphere.

Now the rest of the fans in the infield are enjoying.

You know, years and years of tradition of, you know, camping chairs and parties and socializing, and they, they have a multitude of concessions and interactive opportunities that they're doing out there in the infield.

It's very much a concert festival.

Yes, awesome, like one of the things that struck me as we've come through are just like how many different options there are for the fans.

Well, and that's kind of what we try.

What is huge about my job is.

It has to be Derby Day for everybody.

So if you are a person that has general admission in the infield, your experience has to be memorable, as memorable as somebody in the paddock Club or somebody in the Turf Terrace.

We have, uh, Steve Belman, our trumpeteer, who comes out and plays the call to the post before every single race.

So he has been with us for many, many years, and he's the one that plays the call to the post right before the Kentucky.

Derby, but every other race we do throughout the year.

Steve is definitely an icon, you know, in the industry, icon for us, and throughout the day we're constantly, you know, feeding people.

We're, we're entertaining them not only with what's on the race track but also entertainment in the track, you know, we have roaming artists, we have musicians, we have different things that you can engage in, um, we have partners that are doing different.

Activations whether you're shopping at a retail space or you're engaging with a photo opportunity, there's so much to do here and we plan it that way because 12.5 hours is a long time to entertain people, you know, we talk about it's funny we throw around the specs for Super Bowl and stuff and you know Super Bowl 3.5 hours for a game.

Our game is literally 12.5 hours, yeah.

So, and that's what you expect, right?

You want the racing, you want the experience, but the experience has to last all day and it has to be unique.

So that's what we've created out here.

This is how we flex up .

To 60,000 to 70,000 people on the front side, you know, we create this white lot experience, a craft cocktails right in front of us.

It's one of the cool things that we're doing this year is we're putting in a smokey.

Chef Rodney Scott, who is a well-known, uh, barbecue chef out of the Carolinas, he specializes in whole hog barbecue.

He's actually going to be smoking meats 24 hours a day, so you'll be able to sample his chicken wings, his pulled pork.

You'll be able to sauce it up with other gourmet.

Sauces, so we're creating culinary with experience, right?

Yeah, you, you, you mentioned, you know, we were speaking earlier about a festival environment.

Here you really see, I, I was, you know, trying to understand that, but coming out here now I see, yes, this reminds me very much of any kind of festival I've been to.

Yeah, and it's, you know, we want it to be elevated, so we're doing things like we're putting a big video board out here so you can watch the races, you can wager out here, you can sit and stay, but this, you know, we want it to be a festival, but we want it to be elevated because that's what the Kentucky Derby.

You know, and as we are crafting food, cocktail menu conceptions, we're really trying to think about that elevated environment.

When you come to the Derby, it's about fashion and it's about food and fun and enjoyment.

So all of those things really have to be on a high level.

So that's what we're building out here.

Yes, and, and this is, but it's usually a parking lot.

It's a parking lot for the Derby, you got to get creative and make take advantage of all the space you have.

Yes.

So where that traditionally that paddgate would have been.

Our primary entrance, now it's wide open and people will free flow, you know, yes, so this, this becomes a big hub of guest activity, especially with the main focus of entertainment being right there at the paddock.

Yes, it's a really massive undertaking, but it sounds like you got it down.

You know, we start with opening day and we go all the way through.

Derby is the culmination of everything that we worked with, worked for, so it's not just one day.

And I mean, when we talk about Thurby on the Thursday, then Oaks, then Derby.

That's over 300,000 people that are visiting, you know, and that's, that's just a lot of people, a lot of hospitality, a lot of work, but it's pretty incredible.

And it's cool to be here now as like construction is ongoing and like we're , you know, less than 2 weeks from the Derby, and it's like, it's really close, and there's still, it's interesting to see all of it, what has to happen to make this event, you know, a reality.

OK, so this is our starting gate rooftop, our Fanhill starting gate rooftop garden.

But it gives you such a good look.

And we can, if you want more of a shade shot, we can go over there, but it really gives you a good look of everything that we're building on the infield.

So the infield opens only on Oaks and Derby, aside from the turf suits, which have the green tops.

Those are our luxury suite experiences, and those will open Tuesday of Derby Week, but everybody, everything else out here really starts kicking up on Oaks Day right at 9 a.m. We will have guests.

Lined up at the infield gate, which is over there by Wagner's, it's right by the Churchill Downs sign, and they will rush into the infield.

Some of our bigger days are days like Mother's Day and Preakness and Belmont Day and even Thanksgiving weekend.

Those fluctuate into the 18,000 to 20,000 people, fans here on a normal race day we average about 3000 to 6000.

On a normal Wednesday, Thursday, a Saturday, a lot of them are groups, a lot of them are people coming to enjoy the races, but we have a lot of events that happen here.

A lot of corporations come and bring their people out.

A lot of events from tourism come over here.

So if they're doing a a big convention in town, they're enjoying a day at the races.

And then come Derby Day you have like 100,000, 100,000 of them, right, right, 150,000 on property, you know, with about 40,000 of them in the infield and the rest on the front.

Inside, you know, and then you will see people littered on the backside.

Not only is it horsemen, but connections.

So when we talk about horse connections, it's people affiliated with the horse.

It could be the groom, could be somebody that, uh, you know, is part of the ownership group because, you know, sometimes horses don't just have one owner, they have an ownership group.

So all of those folks are littered on the backside watching the same thing that you are in the infield and the front side.

It's a big party.

Yeah, it's a fantastic view from up here.

You get the sense , not only, you know, you get the track, the back.

which we'll see later and then our new big board.

So the big board's been around.

It's been in existence, um, but what we did was we replaced all of the, the units on it, all of the, um, the pixels.

So it's a, it has a higher resolution now, fully replaced.

Um, it was getting a little older, but yeah, you can see the crews out working, building, concession stands, mutuals, all the things that it takes to make Derby successful.

When we talk about operations, you know, what is operations?

What does event operations look like?

It's, it's like building a BLT or a ham sandwich sandwich , right?

You know, you're eating the finished product, but I'm the one determining, you know , when the bread gets toasted and when the lettuce goes on the sandwich, and what are the other toppings that make this complete thing that you're experiencing.

Operations is the layers, right?

The layers that you don't see happen so that when you come to this event, you're enjoying what's in front of you.

You don't have to see how it's made, you know.

It, it, it feels like magic.

It's just you get here and it just all happens and nobody thinks about you and that's, you know, too bad, but that's what, that's what you want.

That is the goal, right?

You don't get to see how the BLT is made, but we're the ones making it and we're making sure your lettuce doesn't get soggy and your bacon stays nice and crispy, right?

In a nutshell, that's truly what event operations is.

So NBC has a drone up in the air and that's their drone command over there.

So they're shooting some B-roll as well.

So that's what they're doing.

FBI and SWAT team locations are abundant throughout the property and you will see a lot of them on rooftops because, you know, we.

It's a lot of dignitaries come to Derby.

A lot of celebrities, but also dignitaries.

And, you know, we want to make sure everybody's protected and a lot of law enforcement here.

You know, we credential only, uh, you know, just over 6500 people for this event.

So a lot of credentials, a lot of background checks, a lot of, a lot of protection, but it's, it's a crown jewel event and it's, we make sure that everybody is taken care of.

Yeah.

We do go through and pressure wash all of our seats as you will see the pressure washer right here.

So everything is in the, in the getting cleaned up right now.

Wow this is, uh, I, this is always my favorite moment when we come to one of these places where you walk through that tunnel and here's everything and all the glory, yeah, wow.

So you can see we, this is roughly about 7000 seats in this area and then we have, I think it's roughly 60, 59 rail boxes that sit right on the dirt and, and not just right on it, but like, not like above it, like in it in it, you're in the action.

You can feel the thundering and the, the, the, as you can see the horses that are going to run by us right now for morning works, but imagine 20 of them.

Thundering by at the same time, it's pretty incredible.

Yeah, I've never seen anything like this where you're, you're like so in the action.

Yes, yeah, that's really incredible.

And that's a really important part of everything that we do here too is we're really thinking about the experience and what the guest experience is going to be, um.

And ensuring that it's going to be something unique, you know, right, because what we do with horse with horse racing, you're like, you know, they, they go by so quick, you know, it's like you're not, you know, it's not like you, you're sitting at the 50 yard line in a football game , most of the action's there.

It's like you want to make sure that wherever you are, you get the best action you can for that split second, exactly, yes.

Yeah, it's pretty incredible watching these, these animals.

Very nice.

Welcome to the Sports Illustrated Club.

It's enormous.

Wow.

So you, in this space, you get a behind the scenes look right into the, the stalls.

And so the horses are actually in the stalls, that's where they get saddled.

So you kind of really have the behind the scenes look into the space .

Yeah, it's a little deceiving when you walk in the door.

So not only do you get to look into the back of the paddock stalls, but you look into the paddock runway as well.

But being that horse safety is first, can you, you can kind of look across and see how it looks gold in those windows.

So there's a film on the windows, so the horses actually can't see into the space, but you can see out of the space, um, so they don't get distracted or anything like that.

It's similar to, um, AT&T in Dallas where they have that, uh.

You know, that walkway where the fans can be at the players of the locker room.

Yes, yes, exactly, exactly.

So everything that's in white here is the original, um, 1895 building.

Oh wow.

And then this space has its own private betting parlor along with a bourbon tasting area and so we'll do bourbon tastings here throughout the day on Oaks and Derby.

Um, we have some Instagrammable moments over there as well.

But the betting parlor is pretty spectacular.

So this is the original, you're under the original building here, uh, from 1895.

And so we wanted to feel, make us feel really authentic.

It's a fun space.

So we will have a piano, baby grand piano in here, we'll have a piano player here throughout all of our meets.

So we also race 70 other race days approximately throughout the year.

And so this is one of the space that the suites are sold year round and used year round.

I'm noticing here the um all these photos of like, uh, what like, you know, notable finishes, yes, yes, photo finishes.

There's a comfort behind as well.

Yeah.

One of my favorites right up here.

I'll actually show you.

I think it's, I think it's up here.

Called the fighting finish.

OK.

Oh, I see, yeah.

The jockeys may, may or may not have been fighting as they as they crossed the finish line.

Little before my time , but still one of my favorites.

One of the best views is right over here to inspires.

Bird.

Yeah, how about that?

Yeah, it's pretty incredible, amazing view.

You can see the slate roof up here, which is original 1895.

Wow.

I often get asked, how do you get into the spires.

There's actually access points within our seats downstairs, and so you access them through, through the seats, through ladders down there in the box seats.

And, and what would they be accessed for maintenance, mostly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nobody's just climbing up there.

No, no, generally not.

We'd probably stop you before you got too far.

Yes, yeah.

So now we're out on Turf Terrace.

I always get asked the question of where does Tom Brady sit ?

Where did Aaron Rodgers sit?

This is where Tom Brady sits and where Aaron Rodgers.

The other favorite question I get is where did Travis Kelsey sit?

We'll go take a look at that.

All, all the favorites, all the favorites.

Those are the only questions anybody ever asked me, right?

Where did this person sit or that person sit?

So we're heading back underneath the Spires building now you can kind of see the trusses.

So this is where Travis Kelsey sat, was up here in Spires Terrace, but this space is one of my favorite spaces.

Our architects are saints.

When we were walking the space, this used to all be box seating and this was all covered in by aluminum siding that they put on in the 70s.

And so when you look back at original pictures, you would see that all of this was open air and that you could.

There was box seats, but they stopped and then there was kind of a walkway or whatever.

And so you can see the track and the paddock from one seat.

We didn't really have that anymore.

You can, there's lots of rooms where you have access to both, but not really literally from your seat and created this kind of suite and, and luxury dining space.

So our tickets up here start around 15,000 and go up to about 20,000 per ticket for the two day ticket only holds, uh, just under 200 people.

We have two private suites.

Within this space you can see the original chimney that's here, um, and amazing views down.

Of the track and into the paddock as well.

So they have full concierge service from the time they purchase the ticket until the time they leave, but you also kind of get the full experience of being with the crowd, you know, so you're getting all of the cheering of the box seats.

So the box seats that you can kind of look down on are quintess.

Essential product, um, that everyone, you know , when you talk Derby, when you talk Churchill Downs, everyone's talking about, oh, I sat in box seats in this section.

And so most of our owners, uh, who purchase additional seating will buy in this section right below, which is 318 and 319.

So you're part of the action, right?

You're in the action, but a little separated still.

Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a great seat.

Obviously you're, you're near the finish line.

I love the fact that you're under this original structure.

It's old, but it's still classy.

It's like it's been updated, the glass and the, and the exterior, and so, yeah, you get kind of like, you know, we're in some of these like hyper modern areas which are beautiful, but here you get that real original feel, yeah, and, and a great seat and as you said, near the, uh, you know, the kind of the, the people who are not paying $15,000 for a ticket and have maybe a little more energy, yeah.

And these are, so this is the access into the spires.

So there's one here, one down there, so you can kind of see what's the housing underneath of the spires structure.

Yeah, so I guess the spires, they're just strictly ornamental, ornamental, correct.

So this, a lot of people will ask about the, the building.

First race was in 1875, but this building wasn't built until 1895.

So the original building was built on the, what is now the backside of the building.

They very quickly were like, oh, the sun kind of sets in everyone's eyes, and so they thankfully moved it to this side of the track and created this, um, clubhouse structure in 1895.

So for the 1st 20 years, they were actually on the other side of the track and moved it over here.

You wouldn't realize.

Yes, very cool.

First time here for you.

First time here, yeah, so first time in Kentucky as well.

Oh yeah, yeah.

We do horse racing, basketball, and bourbon.

That's right, yeah.

So yeah I mean we're we're here, you know, behind the scenes in the, in the backside area of the stable area.

It's fascinating to see, you know, everything that goes into gotta watch our stuff here's why I wore boots, but this is, you know, we get to see all the, uh, all the horses here and all the everything that goes into, you know, the magic people see out on the track.

It's our, it's our athletes are back here and this is kind of where the show starts each day and.

You know these horses, the guys get here 4 o'clock in the morning or so.

The track opens at 5:30 in the morning.

They get out to do the training and exercise with the horses, and so it starts early here every day.

And so how many horses are, are stable back here, you know, currently we've probably got 1100 horses or so right here.

Well, we've got capacity for 1400, um, as you can see behind us, there's a load of horses coming in now.

Yep.

So, oh yeah, there you go.

Yeah, and I imagine this is like a, this is a premier destination for racing.

I'm sure it's a premier destination for training as well.

It is.

You got the best of the best here.

It's, uh, you know, when you see the guys that stable here with us year round and compete for the money here.

You're the, the A group of horses here in the country .

And so each, you know, we see different logos here on the barns.

These these are trainers.

Yeah, the, this is Kenny McPeak's barns here.

He's got two barns here.

Hi Greg.

You just go down the road with it's Greg Foley who's been here for his lifetime.

His dad actually trained horses as well, so he's been in this spot for a long time.

So there's a lot of generational things to go here.

You mentioned, you know, people get here early.

The work starts early, so people actually live on the track.

We see their, you know, laundry up here on the balconies and so forth.

Some of that's there.

Some of it's horse laundry.

We have a, a dormitory building here where the guys live here and work here, and, you know.

Believe it or not, these guys get up early every day, very passionate about what they do, and these horses become, and they feel ownership of their own horses that they take care of every day.

Yeah, it's, it's not the kind of job where you, you know, you want to commute in from a half hour away.

You want to be there with your animals and you feel a responsibility, you know, they, something happens in, in the middle of the night, they're here close to take care of that.

And, and again, that's a lot of families here too of, of those folks that work here and they love what they do.

Same with me.

My dad worked here for almost 40 years.

I grew up here.

When I first started driving it was back here.

Yeah, so tell us about how you got involved in and what you do here.

I started, um, full time way back in 1992 and I worked on the front side for a little while.

We have another facility.

It's about 5 miles from here, uh, training facility.

It's got room for 500 horses there, and, um, I was out there for 15 years.

My dad was here and then he, he retired.

I came over and stepped into his role and just tried not to mess up.

You know, he did a great job and I learned from the best and very fortunate for that.

Yeah, so you mentioned over 1000 horses back here.

What about you and the people?

How many people are living back here?

So there's about 1000 people that live back here and work back.

They don't all live back here but work back here as well, um.

You know we do things for them as you see in front of us here is the backside Learning Center that's a resource for them whether it's uh you know they're away from home too so that's something for them to go into and be able to use computers or some people that's learning English it's helping with their families off site.

On the other side we have a church back here, uh, you know they have service every Monday night we have a rec hall down here, the recreation building we just try to help when they're downtown to keep everything going it's , it's a real community.

It's a real community, yeah, very, very cool.

But also at the same time it's not, it's not year round back here, right?

The horses aren't in.

We don't, we open in mid March until December we'll have horses here.

So for the most part it is, you know, me being here for 34 years and growing up here my whole life and Derby's always been a part of my life even when I was a child.

Yeah, this one you've got justifying American Fair Horse.

Oh, this is Bob Bafford's bar.

OK, so yeah, that's that's a big name for sure.

Yeah, OK, there you go.

Wow.

So one thing that, that, that I was thinking about as I was planning to come here, obviously Kentucky is known as a horse racing hotbed, the home of American horse racing.

Churchill Downs in a lot of ways is was was Kentucky that way before this track, or did the track kind of foster that?

So you know there were other tracks, even older tracks in Kentucky, but as you go forward in Churchill Downs and through media and publicity and everything, the Kentucky Derby comes up.

Obviously it's the cream of the crop.

It's the oldest current racetrack in Kentucky.

When you get to Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Derby.

I think that's a lot of what drives horse racing in general around the country is this race.

Yes, so then it becomes, you know, a destination like you're talking about for training.

People want to be here associated with this famous track and you have great trainers.

You want to be associated with the track and.

You know, if you go anywhere and these guys go somewhere or even me, you're on, you're gone on vacation, you may tell somebody you work at Churchill Downs, they go, I don't know, when you say the Kentucky Derby, it clicks.

They know the Kentucky Derby.

The Kentucky Derby, you know, is 2 minutes in sports with the city of Louisville.

It means, you know, it's, it's the rite of passage in the spring.

It started this past weekend with Thunder over Louisville.

There's a 2 week celebration for a 2 minute horse race.

But I think this is something that the, the city of Louisville just embraces and, uh, goes all out for and makes you feel very welcome here in this town while you're doing this and being a part of this 2 minute race whether you come here or not, there's derby parties all over the city and for that matter all over the country, but you know it's, it's, you feel anywhere in the city you feel pretty proud to say you're here in Louisville and the Kentucky Derby's run this week and where you're at and where you're watching.