LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Hard hats are required at Churchill Downs, where the iconic paddock is more of a construction site these days.
The paddock is undergoing a $200 million redesign. It won’t be finished until 2024, so there will be a temporary paddock at Derby 149 this year.
In all of his 15 years at Churchill Downs, Media Services Director Darren Rogers said he’s looking at the most transformative project yet.
“It’s amazing to see what it looks like today and imagine what it’s going to look like 13 weeks from now,” Rogers said.
A nearly $200-million-dollar redesign will more than double the paddock’s fan area and, perhaps most notably, the paddock stables will switch sides.
“They are digging out the saddling paddock right here, which will be in the middle. The stalls where the horses will be saddled will actually sit beneath the twin spires,” Rogers explains.
This means for the first time, fans will have the stables and the iconic twin spires within the same view. Also, the redesign is exposing and showcasing the original brick grandstand built in 1895.
“When we started to peel away and do some of the demo work, we actually brought the designers and architects back out here to try and incorporate as much of the old brick into the new design,” Rogers added.
From a second-floor balcony, Rogers has a complete view of the construction happening on the ground. Months into the project, the paddock has been completely stripped away. During this visit, earthmovers were spread out across the dirt and mud construction site working simultaneously.
The redesign is also adding more club space and track viewing options. “The old paddock, which was built in the mid-1980’s, was about 5,000 square feet,” he said.
The new Paddock will have 12,000 square feet and even with heavy construction traffic, Xavier Gareau and his grandparents say they haven’t been held back at all, visiting Louisville from Ottawa.
“We decided to stop down and visit the museum and we got to see the track and all the different stories and all the different winners,” the young Gareau said.
With as impressive as Churchill Downs and its history is it’s no surprise a paddock redesign is equally so.