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Kentucky Derby Museum Announces Multi-Year Partnership With Churchill Downs to Support Museum’s Educational Programs
Racing | Online Wagering | Gaming
Runnings of the
Kentucky Derby
Most profitable horse race wagering platform
Industry-leading regional casinos and HRM/racing properties
Community nonprofits supported annually
It all started with an inaugural race meet in 1875 that featured two flagship horse races: the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby. These iconic races are still run beneath the Twin Spires 149 years later, making the Derby the longest continually-held annual sporting event in the United States. Today, Derby Week is preceded by a month of events celebrating the Kentucky Derby and helps to bring over $400 million to the local economy each year.
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Churchill Downs Incorporated has expanded through the development of live and historical racing entertainment venues, the growth of the TwinSpires horse racing online wagering business and the operation and development of regional casino gaming properties.
The Live and Historical Racing segment includes pari-mutuel racing entertainment venues. Kentucky properties include the legendary Churchill Downs Racetrack, home of the Kentucky Derby which conducts live Thoroughbred racing during Spring, September and Fall Meets. Derby City Gaming & Hotel and Derby City Gaming Downtown are historical racing machine (“HRM”) entertainment venues that operate under the Churchill Downs pari-mutuel racing license in Louisville. Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel offers live harness racing and HRMs in Oak Grove. Turfway Park Racing & Gaming is a live winter Thoroughbred racetrack and HRM entertainment venue in Florence with ancillary HRM facility Newport Racing & Gaming in Newport. Ellis Park Racing & Gaming is a live summer Thoroughbred racetrack and HRM venue in Henderson. In Virginia, the segment includes Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, as well as seven Rosie’s Gaming Emporium HRM facilities located in Collinsville, Dumfries, Emporia, Hampton, New Kent, Richmond and Vinton.
The TwinSpires segment is comprised of the advanced deposit wagering (“ADW”) business, United Tote and historical horse racing technology leader, Exacta. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, TwinSpires is one of the largest and most profitable online wagering platforms for horse racing in the U.S.
The Gaming segment includes Churchill Downs Incorporated’s casino properties and associated racetrack or jai alai facilities that support the casino license. CDI’s regional gaming portfolio consists of 12 properties located in 11 states including: Calder Casino in Miami Gardens, Florida; del Lago Resort & Casino in Waterloo, New York; Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana; Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City, Iowa; Harlow’s Casino Resort & Spa in Greenville, Mississippi; Miami Valley Gaming in Lebanon, Ohio; Ocean Downs Casino in Berlin, Maryland; Oxford Casino Hotel in Oxford, Maine; Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie, Pennsylvania; Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois; Riverwalk Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Mississippi; Terre Haute Casino Resort in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Rose Gaming Resort is a $372 million gaming and entertainment complex destination, and will be located alongside I-95 in Dumfries, Virginia. Along with exciting gaming action, it will include a luxury hotel, eight bars and restaurants, a cultural venue, a space for meetings and events and over 80 acres of green space.
Owensboro Racing and Gaming is a $100 Million gaming entertainment venue and will be located at the corner of US Highway 60 and Wrights Landing Road in eastern Daviess County, KY. Expected to open in the first quarter of 2025, the property will operate as an annex of Ellis Park Racing & Gaming in Henderson, KY and support Ellis Park’s traditional summer race meet. The brand-new entertainment venue will feature 600 state-of-the-art historical racing machines, retail sportsbook, simulcast wagering facility and multiple food and beverage offerings.
Churchill Downs Incorporated proudly oversees 27 industry-leading regional casinos and HRM/racing properties across 14 states.
View AllThis year’s Kentucky Derby brings heightened reverence for the annual festivities and attention to wardrobe detail is no exception. After all, the Run for the Roses does have a 150-year history for becoming the world’s most prestigious outdoor runway. To provide an atlas of attire for racing fans, the Churchill Downs team, along with Guest Editor Zanna Roberts Rassi, worked with treasured partners and official licensees as well as top designers from around the globe to curate the first ever official Style Guide for the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Mixing classic race day occasion wear with contemporary design, the guide honors decades of fashion inspiration by presenting a composite of heirloom elegance alongside today’s biggest trends.
Tonya Abeln
Spring 2024
Wylie Caudill’s journey into the world of art is a testament to the power of passion, perseverance and the powerfully transformative influence of social media. Initially harnessing his budding creativity as a chalk artist on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), Wylie’s aim was to connect with people and establish a reputation for himself as he tried to find his place in this new phase of undergraduate life. Even with his vast imagination, he never envisioned this seemingly small and concentrated endeavor would ignite a deep love for large-scale artwork and pave the way for a successful career as a muralist.
Tonya Abeln
Fall 2023
Saturday, May 5 at Churchill Downs Racetrack
The 149th running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve was held before a spirited and vibrant crowd of over 150,000 fans under mostly sunny skies on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs Racetrack. A top-rank grade I stakes race for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds with a $3 million purse, the Kentucky Derby remains America’s longest continually-held sporting event and is often revered as the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” This year was no exception, as the exuberant crowd witnessed Mage triumph in America’s greatest race.
Derby Review 2023
“It is not unusual for an artist to have such a specific point of view that the mere mention of their name evokes an immediate mental connection to their work. It is, however, a rare gift for an artist to completely embody that visual language in every facet of their life. Brazilian-born Romero Britto is the personification of his art in human form. The consistency of his artistic brand sparks familiarity and his larger-than-life personality is creative study in human connection. Both are iconic. Both illicit a dopamine effect of happiness. And both will be a major part of the 149 th Kentucky Derby”
Tonya Abeln
Spring 2023
“A new, larger and more beautiful paddock will debut for the 150th Kentucky Derby, to be held the first Saturday in May, 2024. A big project, estimated at $185-200 million. But one whose cost is dwarfed by expectations of something special, built in the heart of the racetrack. ‘The new paddock will be transformational for the track,’ promises Churchill Downs Racetrack General Manager Mike Ziegler. ‘It turns the whole focal point upon entering the racetrack to a grand paddock. And the first thing you’ll see upon walking in the gate is the Twin Spires.”
Bill Doolittle
Fall 2022
“The artist chosen for the official artwork of the Kentucky Derby always has a unique story, but Aimee Griffith’s journey as an artist is especially intriguing. Born and raised in Bardstown, Kentucky, with fond memories of Thunder Over Louisville as a kid, Aimee didn’t truly begin her work as an artist until recent years. Though she took an art class in college, it wasn’t until her family’s relocatoin to Austrailia in 2016 that Aimee really began to come into her own as an artist. What began as trips to the free museums with her kids eventually led to her own urge to pick up a paint brush herself.”
Tony Lewis
Spring 2022
“It is nearly impossible to speak of the Kentucky Derby without mentioning the name of Matt Winn. Born on June 30, 1861, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Patrick Winn and Julia Flaherty Winn, Colonel Matt Winn – as he was popularly known due to his honorary title – has a story inextricably tied to the modern Kentucky Derby, serving on the management team of Churchill Downs from 1902 to 1949 and widely regarded as the father of the Derby as we know it today.”
Chris Goodlett
Fall 2021
“As with much of American history, the contributions of Black horsemen to the legacy of the Kentucky Derby, though integral, are largely unknown to far too many of us. This spring, the Kentucky Derby Museum is doubling down on its efforts to remedy that erasure. Since 1993, the museum has hosted a permanent ‘Black Heritage in Racing’ exhibit on the second floor. But now, the exhibit moves downstairs to a 930-square-foot space to expand the stories of legendary Black horsemen through artifacts, oral history interviews and artwork.”
Kellie Doligale
Spring 2021
“Every object and significant building of the first 20 years of the Downs and the Derby – with the exception of the racetrack itself, which hasn’t moved an inch in 146 years – have been modified or removed. One has to say the ‘modern’ life of the ancient Downs begins with that grandstand and its spires: the heart of the track that grew from there and a continuing heartbeat of its history.”
Bill Doolittle
2020
“It almost never is, but sometimes the exception confirms the rule: 2019 Kentucky Derby victor Country House looks like a horse that was born to win. With his fluid and sturdy movement, watching him run is a joy, all long strides and lean muscle. A glossy copper chestnut with a shock of white blazing down his forehead, this is what you picture when you close your eyes and envision ‘champion.’”
Kirsten Schofield
Fall 2019