The bugle at the track usually signals the start of a race, but Friday at Keeneland, it sounded for another reason. The 2020 Breeders Cup Championships are coming back to Keeneland. The official announcement came Friday afternoon at the historic Lexington track.
Keeneland hosted the two day Breeders Cup in 2015. Keeneland Vice President Vince Gabbard doesn’t foresee any major changes two years from now. “The logistics went great. There will be a few small tweaks, but no major changes for what we have planned in 2020, just because our people flow and our traffic flow worked so well, that we will utilize most of the same templet going forward,” said Gabbard.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray said the second Breeders Cup in Lexington is likely to bring with it a $65 million dollar economic impact, $15 million more than 2015
Kentucky Senator and former Breeders Cup employee Damon Thayer said it’s very difficult to fit 40 to 50,000 people into a facility that wasn’t made for it. “These temporary facilities take years of planning, months of execution for all of it to come off on the two days of the Breeders Cup. And I have never been to a facility who did it as well as Keeneland did it in 2015,” noted Thayer.
Thayer believes a 2018 general assembly approved Breeders Cup tax credit likely played a role in the return to Keeneland for the world championships.
This fall, Churchill Downs in Louisville is hosting the Breeders Cup Championships.
