Breeders' Cup returning to Churchill Downs
Track president Kevin Flanery sat down with his team a year ago and guaranteed, "We're going to get the Breeders' Cup back at Churchill Downs."
Since the championships' last visit in 2011, Churchill transformed its sixth-floor press box into "the Mansion," built a courtyard area off the final turn and added the massive "Big Board" along its back stretch. The Central Avenue track also this winter completed $18 million in renovations to a number of its premium seating areas ahead of the May 7 Kentucky Derby.
On Monday, it paid off when the Breeders' Cup announced Churchill as its host site on Nov. 2 and 3, 2018, returning to a site that has attracted the championships' largest crowds and betting numbers.
"Our friends here at Churchill Downs in the equine community sometimes get less than a fair shake," said Breeders’ Cup President and CEO, Craig Fravel. "There has been, in my view, no track that has invested more money in their facility, trying to upgrade their customer experience, and done some really remarkable things."
Churchill has hosted biggest Breeders' Cups
Churchill changed plenty since the championships' last visit, when Drosselmeyer won the nation's most-lucrative race, the Classic. A year before that, Blame edged Zenyatta under the Twin Spires, handing the mare her only career defeat.
Flanery said a flurry of upgrades were made "for the people of this community and the people who work at Churchill Downs."
In the meantime, a seemingly frosty relationship between the Breeders' Cup and Churchill thawed. TwinSpires.com started sponsoring championship races, while Churchill upped the Road to the Kentucky Derby points value for the Juvenile won in 2015 by eventual Derby favorite Nyquist.
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About a week before Keeneland hosted its first Breeders' Cup, news broke that Churchill had submitted a bid to take 2018's open slot. Churchill spokesman John Asher called the end result the "continuation of a beautiful friendship."
Santa Anita will stage the championships for a record ninth time later this year, while Del Mar was previously announced as 2017's destination. Churchill will then tie Santa Anita's record in 2018.
Going back to 2008-2009, consecutive Breeders' Cups at Santa Anita marked the first time a host site earned the bid back-to-back. Churchill did the same the following two years before Santa Anita staged three in a row.
Sites beyond 2018 haven't been determined, Fravel said, months after Keeneland favored a quality-over-quantity approach to the championships.
"I do think there's always something about a little unsatisfied demand," Fravel added. "I think we experienced that at Keeneland. We were sold out in February, essentially, for our premium seats. It took us another couple months before we sold out the general admission.
"Churchill's a much different experience than that. There was a little bit of unsatisfied demand, and that's why we're going to Santa Anita this year, where we have more room for the GA crowd."
The Breeders' Cup's highest single-day attendance -- 80,452 -- packed into Churchill on Nov. 7, 1998. Also, the championships' top handle for a given day -- $140,332,198 -- reigistered on the Nov. 4, 2006, races in Louisville.
"Our horse racing fans in this city have been wanting this for a long time," said Mayor Greg Fischer. "It is no secret that Churchill has set the record both for attendance and handle. I think I can safely predict in 2018 we will set the records in that and once again put the spotlight on the great sport of thoroughbred racing."