Kentucky Downs’ reserved seating available through online box office

kentuckydownstentsFrom Kentucky Downs news release
Posted: 8/2/16

With one month to go until Kentucky Downs’ unique five-date race meet boasting America’s most lucrative purses, fans can order tickets online to ensure their place in the Finish Line and Turf Club tents.

The two distinctive trackside venues allow patrons to enjoy the best of both worlds: being outdoors in a pastoral setting in early September and also under cover, all while alongside Kentucky Downs’ European-style turf course over which horses will compete for an average of $1.56 million a day. The online box office is open for business at kentuckydowns.com/racing/live-racing/buy-tickets. Live racing will be held Sept. 3 (a Saturday), Sept. 8 (Thursday), Sept. 10 (Saturday), Sept. 11 (Sunday) and Sept. 15 (Thursday).

For $30 a person, the Finish Line Tent offers a casual setting and includes a seat and unlimited buffet of burgers, barbecue, brats and picnic sides, along with a private cash bar, mutuel clerks and high-definition monitors mere feet from where the horses cross the wire.

The Turf Club Tent, $50 a person, is in front of the main Clubhouse building and includes a seat and upscale buffet, private cash bar and mutuel clerks, high-def monitors and viewing enhanced by the infield video board.

“The beauty of the Finish Line Tent is its location,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs’ senior vice president and general manager. “The beauty of the Turf Club is our higher-end food, and you’re adjacent to the clubhouse building, the gaming floor, air-conditioning, high-end restrooms.”

Kentucky Downs again is offering the tailgating experience — free this year — at the top of the stretch, where patrons can park their cars near the course and bring picnic meals, including alcohol as long as it doesn’t leave the area.

Lifelong racing fan Ron Latosinski, who lives near Murfreesboro, has been coming to Kentucky Downs since moving to Tennessee in 2003. He has watched the course go from nearly extinct to industry leader under the ownership group that purchased the track in 2007. Last year Latosinski used the tail-gate option for attending the races. He said he and his wife this year will be in the Finish Line Tent, an experience he got a taste of during Kentucky Downs’ Kentucky Derby simulcast.

“What I like is that they don’t have a huge grandstand seating area, it’s more laid-back and relaxed,” said Latosinski, who grew up in Michigan going to Detroit Race Course. “It’s a one-of-kind race course, and every race you’re getting 10-plus horses. I like the free admission, free parking. When you come in there, you don’t feel like you’re in a concrete jungle and standing on cement the whole time.

“The tents look very professional. And I like the fact that they are close by (the track). If it’s a hot day, you have the shade, fans in there and flat-screen TVs.”

Kentucky Downs, the top-ranked racing product as judged by the Horseplayers Association of North America, never stops trying to improve.

While a major remodeling project is in the works for the clubhouse, it won’t compromise customer service and patron enjoyment. Horseplayers will appreciate the improved view of the stretch with a new high-definition camera, as well as the modulator that will allow simulcast customers to watch in real HiDef those tracks offering HD video.

“That came from us listening to our players,” Nicholson said. “If there’s something we can improve on, we’re going to try to do it.”

Other projects involve infrastructure in making Kentucky Downs — which in true European tradition was dropped down in the middle of a field when launched in 1990 — the most modern track possible. This year that includes renovation of the racing office and jockeys’ quarters and running fiber-optic cable to upgrade communication.

The popular Brickyard Cafe on the downtown Franklin square is the track’s new caterer and concessionaire. The clubhouse restaurant has been renamed the Brickyard at The Downs.

“We’re racing only five days this year, but we want the facilities to be on par — and better — than tracks with extended racing seasons,” Nicholson said. “At the same time, we embrace and celebrate all that makes Kentucky Downs and its setting a unique experience in American racing, with the goal of everybody having a great time.”

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