Big Bet on Churchill Downs President Pays Off : Track Overhaul Enters Homestretch

Thomas H. Meeker will never forget his first impression of Churchill Downs.

“I looked around and said, ‘This is the crown jewel of all of thoroughbred racing? This place looks like a dump.’ There was trash all over the place,” the 44-year-old Meeker recalled. “You also had cigar-chewing mutuel clerks blowing smoke in customers’ faces. They couldn’t care less. They were just there to grab their paycheck.

“It was an embarrassment.”

So, it was with some serious misgivings that Meeker, who was general counsel for Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc., became track president in 1984 and embarked on a five-year, $25-million capital improvement plan for the home of the Kentucky Derby.

“The concern that I had was that the board of directors would not get in lock step with the program I’d come up with. Essentially, it involved a substantial capital commitment, which they had not historically done,” he said.

But the board soon gave Meeker the go-ahead, and he has been consumed by the job since.

“Here’s a guy who four or five years ago didn’t know the front end of a horse from the back . . . and still don’t . . . and don’t want to. But I think I have learned how to run a race track,” Meeker said.

A Shift From California

The numbers bear him out. During his regime, attendance and betting have increased every meet, the track’s restaurant business is up 60% and the price of the publicly held company’s stock has climbed to $133 a share from $55.

Still, Meeker credits the track’s employees, not himself, for the new-found success.

“Our employees have turned this place around. There’s no doubt about it. They’re proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish in a very short period of time,” he said.

“They love to have people on the race track. They love to serve them. You go around right now, and these guys are all wired up getting ready for this meet. I mean they want it to happen tomorrow.”

The fall meet will be highlighted by the fifth annual Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, a seven-race event with purses totaling $10 million. It is the first time in three years that the race has been held outside Southern California, where it alternated between Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.

When Churchill Downs started its capital improvement program four years ago, it did it, in part, with the idea of attracting the Breeders’ Cup.

“The Breeders’ Cup has been part of the whole game plan since Day One,” Meeker said. Among the projects were a new turf course and a new 20-stall paddock area, unveiled in 1986 and 1987, respectively.

Now, with the renovations nearly complete and the Breeders’ Cup soon to be a memory, Meeker is looking at “a variety of investments” to make the race track popular even when horses aren’t running.

Cleanup Comes First

Churchill Downs has been buying land as it becomes available in the neighborhood of the track in south Louisville.

Much of that is being used for parking, and Meeker believes that it will be several years before the track gets further into the development business.

Meeker has been “bantering around” the idea of condominiums along the first turn, or a hotel somehow connected to the track and its dining facilities and meeting rooms, but “we’ve done nothing formal.”

First, he said, the city and other agencies should cooperate in cleaning up the neighborhood to help showcase the track.

“The critical focus of the next five-year plan will be on the neighborhood here, trying to upgrade it and do what we can to spur some economic development activity out here in south Louisville,” Meeker said.

“Hopefully, we’ll make the community better. Now there’s a self-serving motive to that. If the community thrives, our business is going to thrive. But the fact of the matter is we can do a lot for the community.”

As for himself, Meeker said he will remain president as long as he has something to do.

“I don’t think I’m the kind of guy that’s going to sit behind a desk and wait until the next race meet comes toddling along,” he said. “I need something to keep me busy, and there’s plenty yet to be done out here that will keep me busy.”