Standing on the backstretch last Sunday at Churchill Downs, it was sad to view the desecration at Kentucky’s most famous landmark. I’m not talking about the barns that were ripped asunder by the recent tornadoes. They will be rebuilt after the current meet, and, unless Churchill management does it on the cheap, always a possibility, […]

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Lexington, Ky., is about the last place in Basketball America where you would expect to find a team that’s easy to wrap your arms around and love like an underdog. That’s because University of Kentucky basketball long has been the poster child for overemphasis. Going back to 1930, when Adolph Rupp began building the game’s […]

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By saying that his dream job is athletics director at the University of Kentucky, as opposed to Governor or Lieutenant Governor, Richie Farmer gave us something to think about. Such as, if the UK A.D.’s job was put on the ballot, who would win an election between Farmer and incumbent Mitch Barnhart?
Barnhart couldn’t run on […]

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LOUISVILLE – Until it was time for the horses to leave the paddock and head for the track, the day of the 136th Kentucky Derby was such a dreary affair that YUM! Brands, the corporation that has leeched its name onto the world’s most coveted horse race, should have offered everyone a refund or, at […]

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LOUISVILLE – If the winner of the 136th Kentucky Derby turns up with a positive post-race drug test – heaven forbid! – the media immediately will begin looking for two people: the colt’s trainer and its veterinarian.
The trainer will be easy to find. But the vet? Well, suffice it to say that none of the […]

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LOUISVILLE – The addition of light poles around the track at Churchill Downs has done more than make the hallowed home of the Kentucky Derby look like your basic NASCAR or harness-racing oval. It has inspired thoughts that sooner rather than later, the world’s most popular race will be run at night.
Back in the day, […]

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When a demagogue overplays his hand and exposes himself as the cheap bully he really is, his supporters begin quietly distancing themselves from him, leaving him to twist slowly in the wind. The more he raves, the more of an embarrassment he becomes until, finally, he leaves the public arena in disgrace.
So it was with […]

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At the beginning of his remarks at yesterday’s Louisville Forum luncheon about the plight of Kentucky’s horse racing industry, Bob Evans, the president and CEO of Churchill Downs, Inc., told the group that he had expanded the acreage of his Central Kentucky breeding farm. “I don’t know why I keep investing in this industry,” Evans […]

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Churchill Downs’ wildly successful experiment with night racing has provided a huge ray of a hope to an industry that desperately needs every shred of good news it can get. The show now moves to Ellis Park in Henderson, where owner Ron Geary is set to go out of business after the upcoming meet due […]

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Happy Independence Day, everyone. I’m happy to report that I’m rejuvenated after the disappointing demise of the slots bill in the state senate, and looking forward to the day when all Kentuckians will be free of the Bully of Burkesville’s brand of political tyranny.
Upon further review, I probably was too harsh in my evaluation of […]

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