Sen. Damon Thayer provides insight into NKY’s deep roots in horse industry; group explores possibilities

By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor

Senator Damon Thayer gave a comprehensive presentation recently on Northern Kentucky’s deep horseracing history to the Florence Rotary Club, organized by his fellow Senator John Schickel.

Both Thayer and Schickel have a deep interest in the subject — from different perspectives — and continue to pursue ways to re-position NKY as a key part of the state’s rich racing industry.

Old Latonia Race Track
(NKyTribune file photo)

Let’s start with Thayer’s concluding and powerful remark to his audience:

“We mean to see built an indoor grandstand (at Turfway Park Racing & Gaming) and we are going to keep pushing for that until we get it!”

So now, a bit of perspective, starting with a source Thayer credited for part of the history lesson he gave the Rotarians.

Jim Claypool is author of The Tradition Continues: The Story of Old Latonia, Latonia, and Turfway Racecourses, published in 1997. An updated version of this rich history is in the works. Claypool was the first employee of Northern Kentucky University in February of 1970, born of Northern Kentucky State College, a two-year institution. He was hired as Dean of Admissions and also started NKU’s athletics program for men and women. At his insistence Northern was the first school in the Commonwealth, and one of the first three institutions to offer scholarships to both men and women athletes. He became NKU’s first Archivist and Curator and continued to teach history until 2002 when he took emeritus status. He is an expert on the history of the Kentucky Derby — and has an unparalleled collection of equine history of his own.

In an Our Rich History column for the NKyTribune he recounted the glory of the Old Latonia Racecourse and its place in equine history:

NKyTribune file photo)

The old Latonia Racecourse in Covington is where Kentucky Derby and other champion horses once raced…The grand old course would lead the country in total purses distributed 12 times from 1915 to 1927, is credited with having instituted “the 2 dollar bet,” and hosted many of America’s top horses, trainers, jockeys, and owners.

Jockeys like Kentucky Derby winners Earl Sande, and locals Eddie Arcaro and Mack Garner were associated with Latonia during its heyday. While many great races were run at Old Latonia from its opening in 1883, until its closure in 1939, none was more important than the Third International Race held there on October 11, 1924. This famed race, always covered in the standard histories of thoroughbred racing, took place when horse racing rivaled baseball and football as America’s top sport.

It was the golden age of thoroughbred racing and thousands of fans routinely attended the races daily to view and bet on horses like Exterminator and Man ‘O War, both of whom would become household names. In fact, the 1918 Derby-winner, Exterminator (1915-1945), who placed in the money 100 times, launched his storied racing career by winning a 6-furlong maiden sprint at Latonia in 1917 by 3 lengths.

Sen. Damon Thayer

The Third International, the concluding leg of 3 races held in America pitting the nation’s best horses against Europe’s best horse, was the continuation of a concept originating in 1923…The old track never looked better. Its carefully manicured flower beds sparkled in the cool autumn sun, and the three spires above the grandstand stood majestically as the loud Klaxton sounded its final warning, and the field of eight horses drew near the starting line. 60,000 fans were in attendance that day. . .

See the rest of Claypool’s column here. But — spoiler — Saracen won. The point being, though, that horse racing is baked into the NKY DNA, and while Latonia fell on hard times after the Depression and closed in 1939 (it’s now a shopping center), the “Latonia Racetrack” eventually moved (after a 20-year hiatus) to the wide open spaces of Florence and ultimately became Turfway Park.

And that’s where Thayer picked up his dramatic and engaging accounting of the development of Turfway. He was, in fact, recruited to Turfway Park by entreprenuer Jerry Carroll in the late 1980s. It was, he said, a turning point in his own life as well as for Turfway Park. Carroll was determined to re-build the fan base, draw families and race fans alike to the Park. It was family fun at its finest — and included at one point a week-long Spiral Festival celebration that engaged the entire community in the lead-up to the big race, once called the Spiral.

Turfway Park (NKyTribune photo)

During those years, highlights included record crowds, a Jim Beam Stakes Race becoming a Grade 2 race, intertrack wagering, full cast simulcasting, a Kentucky Cup Day — and well-earned name-dropping for the superstar horseflesh racing there — Serena’s Song, Ally Sheba, Tobasco Cat, Hansel, Silver Charm, Animal Kingdom (to mention just a few). The track had been through a succession of owners until Churchill Downs purchase it, tore down the old facility, and installed the $100 million Turfway Racing and Gaming, complete with 850 historical racing machines and generous viewing and meeting areas.

Thayer is a dynamic speaker and the legislature’s leading authority on racing. He once owned a small Bluegrass farm of his own — and is admittedly a true blue Kentuckian at heart.

He told the Rotary group that Turfway is seeing its largest purses ever, that the four-month winter meeting (December ’22-March ’23) saw a 25% increase in national simulcast handle, that NKy fans love to bet, that the new $10 million Tapeta Synthetic racing surface at Turfway Park is one of the safest in the country and provides for a consistent and safe racing surface during the winter weather.

But even this success is — perhaps — a mere drop in the bucket. The glory days of consistently large crowds — particularly families drawn to racing and $1 hot dog nights, and kid-friendly playgrounds, and a destination entertainment mecca for locals is still waiting to be tapped into.

And, perhaps, there are possibilities in making Turfway a larger tourist attraction as well.

Sen. Schickle’s horse interest group. (Photo provided)

To that end, Sen. Schickle has initiated a gathering — invitation only — of key local officials, influential citizens, and horsemen to talk about the possibilities.

The group — many of whom attended Thayer’s presentation to the Florence Rotary — agreed wholeheartedly with his idea for an indoor grandstand to accommodate Northern Kentucky’s endemic racing crowd — with their families — to come back to their roots. Oldtimers who fondly remember Spiral Festival Week in NKY as an inclusive family celebration are hoping for a return of those kinds of good times for the community.

These are among the ideas that Schickle’s informal interest group is pursuing — and more will certainly be heard from that group and from Thayer.