Night Racing To Become Regular Fixture At Churchill Downs In '10

Churchill Downs Making Night Racing A Regular Fixture After Drawing Big Crowds This Summer

Night racing "will become a regular fixture at Churchill Downs next year," after debuting at the track on a trial basis this year, according to Gregory Hall of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. The track yesterday said that it "will take bids to buy permanent lights -- after using temporary lighting to draw nearly 90,000 race fans over three nights this year, two in June and July 2." The final crowd of 33,481 was the "largest in the track's modern history outside of a Kentucky Derby or Oaks day or the Breeders' Cup." Churchill Downs VP/Communications Liz Harris said that "no night racing is planned for the upcoming fall meet." Discussions with horsemen and fan polling "will help determine how much night racing there will be" next year, but Harris said that she "expects racing primarily would be conducted during the day, with a smattering of night-racing cards." Harris noted that the track's "two biggest races -- the Derby and Oaks -- will be run during the daytime next year," and there are "no plans for either event to be conducted at night -- although she didn’t rule it out." Churchill Downs "did not disclose specific financial results of the spring meet experiment, dubbed Downs After Dark" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/29).