New Churchill Downs paddock will be old paddock by 2024

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The new-look Churchill Downs paddock shown to the world this weekend at the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks will, ultimately, be a temporary one. But Brad Cox, whose large Churchill Downs string includes four colts and three fillies whom he will lead over for this weekend's spring classics, would be just fine if it wasn't.

"I know it's just temporary, but I'd be fine if that was the permanent paddock," Cox said.

The Churchill Downs paddock is undergoing a $200 million redesign, an expansive project scheduled to be completed in time for the 150th Kentucky Derby in 2024. This required the construction timeline to include a stopping point in order to have a usable paddock ready for the marquee first week of the track's spring meeting, which opened April 29. Although horses had been stopping by the paddock in the mornings to school in the days prior, Saturday night was the first time the facility hosted fields of horses and fans for racing.

"The thing with horses is, you're just looking for space, for room," Cox said. "It's a big improvement. You can bring a horse out of the stall and give them a turn, and horses aren't on top of each other. It seems like where they're going to have the crowd, there's going to be plenty of room between the crowd and the stalls."

As construction progresses after the Derby, pre-race activity will eventually take place in another temporary paddock, set up on the inside of the backstretch chute.

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