Lexington's historic Keeneland Racecourse just wrapped its fall meet. The track set attendance records the past couple of years. This year's attendance fell about 15,000 patrons shy of last year. Spokeswoman Amy Gregory says rain and cooler than normal temperatures had an impact on turnout during seven of the first 10 racing days. "The weather really challenged us but we had a new dirt track that we debuted this fall and the dirt track performed beautifully. The new drainage system handled the rain that we got the first couple of weeks really well," said Gregory.
Gregory says attendance picked up during the final six days of the meet. Wagering at the track was down about 11% from a year ago.
While preparations are already underway for next spring's racing, there is also attention being given to next year's Breeders' Cup. Large crowds are anticipated for two days of racing in October of 2015 when Keeneland will host the marquee horse racing event. Gregory says the track will test some special features in April.
"This spring fans will see we'll have a double-decker tent out by the paddock that will overlook the paddock and we'll be taking that for a test run for Breeders' Cup. Just ensuring that we do these things during the race meets leading up to next fall, kind of make sure we're working any glitches out, we have operations going as smooth as we can by the time Breeders' Cup gets here," added Gregory.
This year's Breeders' Cup race takes place later this week at Santa Anita in California.