LOUISVILLE, Ky (Reuters) – Racing and training were canceled on Thursday at Churchill Downs, a day after a tornado hit the thoroughbred racetrack famed as home of the Kentucky Derby, according to track officials.
"Considering the damage, which is extensive, it is amazing -- borderline miraculous -- that there were no injuries to either humans or horses," said John Asher, Churchill Downs spokesman.
There was no damage to the grandstand or the track's iconic twin spires.
Churchill Downs is most famous for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby, the first leg in U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown of events, which also includes the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.
Asher said crews on Thursday were inspecting the surface of the race track for storm debris, including nails, that might have been tossed onto the usually carefully manicured racing surface from the passing twister.
Six barns and a portion of a seventh were damaged severely enough they cannot be used, Asher said. Two others that had damage from the storm had been restored to service Thursday. As a result, 30 horses would be transported to Lexington where Keeneland raceway had offered temporary shelter.
Other displaced horses would be housed in previously unoccupied stalls at Churchill, Asher said. Racing will resume Friday at the track.
Churchill Downs also is coordinating with the American Red Cross and emergency management officials to provide shelter for about 100 workers whose living spaces were damaged.
The twister developed in a line of intense thunderstorms that struck Louisville late Wednesday, leaving power lines down and structural damage across the city. But authorities said no deaths or injuries were reported.
The Downs has been hit by a tornado before, in 1928, according to the National Weather Service. The track was inundated by a massive flood in 1937, according to Asher.
Damage also was reported when Wednesday's tornado skipped from the track into the nearby parking lot of the University of Louisville's football stadium, where more than 140 members of a drum and bugle corps were milling about eating dinner after a daylong practice session.
Randy Blackburn, director of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Teal Sound said it was a close call but the corps members were hustled quickly into locker rooms as the twister plowed through the parking lot on the south side of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
"Had it been 300 yards north, it would have taken out at least two of our buses and a truck," Blackburn said. He credited an emergency action plan the group had developed for minimizing potential for injuries.
Denita Stemet, a parent traveling with the group, said she saw the tornado just after it struck Churchill Downs.
"We could see tree branches in it," she said. "There was a lot of debris and some big stuff you could see spinning around inside of it."
The National Weather Service rated the tornado that hit Churchill Downs as an EF-1, with wind speeds of 100-105 mph. It strengthened to EF-2 intensity as it moved east, with speeds of 120 mph.
(Reporting and writing by Steve Robrahn; Additional reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune)
