Churchill Finds Site for Daviess County HHR Facility

Churchill Downs Inc. announced June 19 it had secured a site in eastern Daviess County in Kentucky, outside of the Owensboro city limits, to build its previously announced historical horse racing machine entertainment venue as an annex of Ellis Park racetrack.

The new facility will support purse funding for Ellis Park race meets. CDI acquired Ellis Park in 2022 and said it plans to spend approximately $75 million over the next year on the aging racetrack and the future Owensboro gaming and simulcasting center. 

In late 2019, CDI purchased and redeveloped Turfway Park into a modernized racing and gaming facility, which reopened this month. HHR gaming has also flourished in Louisville at the Churchill Downs-affiliated Derby City Gaming. Outside Kentucky, over the past year CDI has entered into agreements to acquire Colonial Downs in Virginia, which has HHR machines.

Turfway Park, which opened its new racing and HHR facility Sept. 1 and had already been building up purse money from its satellite HHR operation, saw its purses jump 81% to $19,748,103 ($346,458 average daily purse). Average daily purses were up 22% at Ellis Park to $412,292 but gross purses were down 6% to $9,482,710 because the meet was shortened by seven days in 2022.