Oops! Got my Republican members of Congress mixed up in Sunday’s column. I mistakenly wrote that Patrick Neely, now the executive director of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, was once an aide to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Although Neely volunteered in a couple of McConnell campaigns, he never served on the senator’s staff. He did serve as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup and ran a couple of her congressional races. My bad. Senior moments are hell.
Larry Dale Keeling, a columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, has spent most of his 35-plus years in journalism reporting on or writing editorials and columns about Kentucky’s politics and political issues. He now brings his experience and expertise on those topics to the KyKurmudgeon blog.
Maybe you should rewrite the whole column.
Don’t think so.
ldk
LDK,
Went to Churchill last night. Quite an experience. Really enjoyed it.
Did not miss slots, that’s for sure. Felt it was a value night for us. Really great to see so many ladies dressed up and having so much
fun. I don’t know if Belmont has slots, but they only had 13,000 for
their Mothergoose with Rachel. 33,000 last night. Maybe less is better.
Churchill has so much too offer without moving to the low level gambling. They can make their own way if they just put their mind to it.
Some obvious problems. Can’t get in or out without major hassle.
Greater Louisville needs to address access and a few signs for us
out-of-towners would help. Even trimming the trees that cover up signs would be a plus. Parking amazingly easy once you can get to
the place, but it took us over one hour to get out of the parking
lot due to traffic hold-ups.
Churchill isn’t the problem. Neither is Keeneland. But if Ellis Park or Turfway close, the year-round circuit that all the small and mid-sized racing operations have to have to survive will be gone. And so will all those people. They’ll go where there is a year-round circuit. And in a few years, the breeding operations will follow, just like it happened for standard-bred racing in this state. Thirty years ago, there were dozens of standard-bred stallions in Kentucky. Now, there are just a couple of them. And all the standard-bred farms have disappeared.
ldk