Last summer when Keeneland announced with jacket-and-tie fanfare that it would host the Breeders’ Cup for the first time, officials at the historic Lexington track raised Perrier-Jouet toasts.
“We want to do it right,” president and CEO Bill Thomason said then. “We want to provide a great experience for everyone who attends.”
And vice president and COO Vince Gabbert added, “Our goal is to put on the highest-class event possible.”
There were a lot of challenges – some generic to any of the 10 tracks that hosted the previous 31 editions of horse racing’s fall championship series and some unique to Keeneland. The unique centered on how to accommodate a substantial two-day crowd – a crowd that topped 98,000 last year at Santa Anita Park in California – in a space considerably smaller than Santa Anita and most other previous Breeders’ Cup venues.
To meet its challenges, Keeneland announced it would cap general admission attendance and construct several temporary reserved-seat facilities, including tents housing individual and corporate suites, grandstand boxes, and new dining and hospitality areas. For the past 18 months, the track has worked with a team composed of in-house divisions, Breeders’ Cup representatives, and operations management, transportation and catering companies from across the country.
Now, with the Oct. 30 and 31 event only weeks away, Keeneland says it will be more than ready for its first closeup on the Breeders’ Cup stage.
“We’re beginning the final countdown, putting the finishing touches on everything,” Thomason said. “The energy around the grounds is palpable.”
By the time the first championship race is run, the most noticeable Breeders’ Cup change at Keeneland will be a temporary infrastructure that has transformed the look of the National Historic Landmark track.
The nucleus of that infrastructure will be a “village” of fi ve luxury structures located on the final turn at the top of the stretch: • Two Trackside Chalets – one two-stories and the other the first triple-decker structure of its kind to be used at a sporting event in North America – housing a total of 35 private suites. • Two Club Lawn Chalets with seating and dining for 500. • The Maker’s Mark Bourbon Lounge, a 45,000-square-foot facility hosting 3,200 people.
Other temporary additions will include a Saddling Paddock Chalet along the length of the paddock seating 574, a trackside Breakfast Marquee with viewing balconies for Breeders’ Cup participants and VIPs that will also house Breeders’ Cup offices on its first floor, and 217 tiered Grandstand Loge Boxes, each seating six, located just below the existing, permanent grandstand boxes.
Together, these new temporary facilities will accommodate 10,000 fans. Along with spaces in the track’s sales pavilion and entertainment center, they will expand Keeneland’s reserved seating capacity for Breeders’ Cup from about 9,000 for normal racing meets to about 21,000. General admission has been capped at 10,000. (Virtually all seats – reserved and general admission – already have been sold.)
Keeneland also has made several permanent improvements in preparation for Breeders’ Cup. Among them, it enlarged the horse path in front of the paddock; created an additional paddock saddling ring; transplanted four mature oak trees – the largest standing nearly 40 feet tall and weighing 30,000 pounds – in the paddock; resodded the paddock; repaved the paddock garden area; renovated the Polytrack surface on the fi ve-furlong training track; and equipped barns on Rice Road across from the track – where the Breeders’ Cup horses will be stabled – with new data and wireless systems.
In addition to its physical-plant work, Keeneland is making different efforts to market its Breeders’ Cup to Lexington, the Bluegrass and beyond. In September and October, it’s offering guided tours of the track – $8 per person, and participants walk away with a souvenir lapel pin. It also is working with the weeklong Breeders’ Cup Festival, sponsored by KentuckyOne Health and more than 20 other local businesses, that will feature horse farm tours, art exhibits, fi lm screenings, a $100-per-person bourbon tasting event, food trucks, free music and more.
All of the infrastructure changes – temporary and permanent – and the related logistics of crowd flow, convenience and safety are an audition for Keeneland, Thomason said. “We don’t want this to be just a single experience,” he added. “It’s about how it can fi t in to enhance our fan experience and our core business activities in sales and racing. And we’re very proud of the way things have come together. We can’t wait for Breeders’ Cup.”