The world is present process a $200 million renovation — and it’s solely midway full. However the race should go on, so crews have erected non permanent stalls and laid down wooden chips on the strolling ring and synthetic turf within the center. The remainder of the huge 138,000-square-foot house has been blanketed with asphalt, giving it the look of an oval spaceship that has landed within the coronary heart of the racetrack.
“They’ve made it so you may see extra and be a part of the method,” mentioned Chris Riley, a Louisville native who now lives in Atlanta and has been to greater than 40 Derbies. “However subsequent yr might be after we can choose it.”
When the undertaking is full, for the a hundred and fiftieth Derby, it should provide terraced standing-room viewing, premium seating, membership areas and even eating choices. Twenty-one saddling stalls will flank the tunnel connecting the paddock to the racetrack. The statues of Aristides, the primary Derby winner, and the jockey Pat Day, the monitor’s all-time chief in each main class, have been moved elsewhere and can return to the paddock space when the development is completed. The custom of hanging an indication above the earlier winner’s stall will proceed as properly, even with the non permanent setup.
Eustace Fernandes, who has lived in Louisville since 1993, has been to not less than 20 Derbies. Final yr, he met Brenda Brown of Frisco, Texas, and Sheri Hightower of Denver, each longtime flight attendants, on the rail on the paddock. They’ve texted practically each week ever since and have been again there Friday.
“She by no means knew she had seats till Eustace instructed her,” Hightower mentioned of Brown. “We’re all the time on the paddock.”
The vantage level — “the very best in the home,” Fernandes mentioned — is what they like concerning the new configuration. “It’s an incredible view of the horses, which is what the three of us love,” Hightower mentioned.
And it’s not simply the paddock that has a brand new look. A $90 million first flip undertaking, primarily a three-story construction paying homage to what you’d discover at a soccer stadium, is being unveiled. It replaces a short lived seating space across the first flip and provides 1000’s of indoor and coated seats in addition to a eating space.
