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CHURCHILL OF TODAY* Year by Year Changes in Home of the Kentucky Derby. Many Transformations in Its 6 5 - Year History — All With Famous Race in View. LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 5.— In the sixty-years years of its existence many changes have been made in Churchill Downs, most of them made necessary by the steady growth of the Kentucky Derby as the nations most famous horse race. Today Churchill Downs stands as a monument to the Derby, accommodating as it will tomorrow a crowd that will i-ange in size from sixty to eighty thousand persons, of whom a third will have seats. Churchill Downs, perhaps, could do with a new grandstand of modern design, but I under the present arrangement, the struc-l I ture, incorporating the clubhouse and bleachers, is some three-eighths of a mile in length. Last year the infield was terraced to increase the visibility of the thousands of Derby visitors selecting that point to enjoy the race. The latest improvement to care for a crowd of greater proportions than ever be-• fore is to be found in the construction of - bleachers extending for nearly a quarter mile around the upper turn with admission, sandwiches and drinks all being at popular prices. FOUNDED IN 1874. Since being founded in 1874, Churchill Downs has had continuous racing and it . ranks as one of the oldest tracks in America. It was founded by Col. M. Lewis Clark, whose . name the Clark Handicap now commemorates, and who visited England and France in 1872 to study the sport in those countries. He came back with the idea of the Kentucky Derby patterned after the English Derby at Epsom Downs. The Louisville Jockey Club was organized in June, 1874, and the construction of the course and clubhouse followed on land leased from John and Henry Churchill and for whom the track was named. Twenty years later a new organization known as the New Louisville Jockey Club was formed to take over Churchill Downs and nearly 00,000 was spent for improvements, the entire construction of the plant Continued on eleventh page. i ; I [CHURCH1LL0F TODAY Continued from first page. being changed. A new grandstand, betting shed, paddock and stables were built with the backstretch becoming the quarter-stretch as the new stand was placed on the side of the track where the old one stood. At the same time the distance of the Kentucky Derby, which had been a mile and one-half since the events inception, was reduced to a mile and a quarter, with the immediate result that the entries increased from 57 to 171. PURCHASED IN 1906. In 1906 the grounds, which heretofore had been leased from the Churchill estate, was purchased by a syndicate composed of Charles F. Grainger, M. J. Winn, S. S. Brown, Andrew Vennie and W. E. Applegate. Douglas Park was constructed that year, but in 1907 the two tracks were taken over by a holding company known as the Louisville Racing Association. The Kentucky Jockey Club was formed in 1918 to take over Churchill Downs and Douglas Park as well as Lexington and Latonia and ten years later the parent organization became the American Turf Association to control also Lincoln Fields and Washington Park in the Chicago area. From 1875 through 1912, the winners share of the Derby was never more than ,000, but the added money was doubled in 1915, raised again in 1917 and elevated a third time in 1919, then 1920 and in 1922 to 0,000 added, its present value. With the increase in the purse came additional interest, necessitating continuous improvements until the plant reached its present high degree of expansion.
