The first leg of the Triple Crown begins Saturday at the Kentucky Derby, and with it a new era for facilities tied to horse racing’s biggest and most important events. Churchill Downs is unveiling a brand-new paddock after $200 million worth of renovations were completed in time for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby.

“The experience is going to be drastically different if you haven’t been here in a couple of years,” Churchill Downs president Mike Anderson tells Front Office Sports. The track’s famous twin spires, originally constructed over the grandstands in 1895, are now much more visible for spectators. “Before, when you walked through the front entrance, there was a building right smack in front of you, a hundred feet, that really kind of blocked the view,” Anderson explains. Churchill Downs also added about 3,000 more seats to the main paddock ring, which has been depressed by about seven feet, to give the area a more coliseum-like feel.

For Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby, this marks the conclusion of a project announced nearly three years ago. But for the other two legs of the Triple Crown, major facility work is just getting started. Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes, appears to be getting closer to receiving $400 million in funds to rebuild the 153-year-old track, pending approval from the Maryland legislature. And the Belmont Stakes is being held in Saratoga, N.Y., this year and next as its Long Island home, Belmont Park, undergoes a $455 million renovation project that is set to be completed by 2026. If everything goes as planned, all three legs of horse racing’s Triple Crown could be fully modernized by the end of this decade.

Ugly Side of the Sport

Last year, 12 horses died at Churchill Downs around the Kentucky Derby, as the entire industry faced horse deaths head-on, resulting in extended closures of many tracks. An investigation into the deaths at Churchill Down, specifically, found no singular cause, it was announced last fall. “Unfortunately, there was no kind of, aha, that’s it, and that’s our fix,” says Anderson, who also points out that the track has emphasized new screening measures to ensure horse safety. 

Meanwhile, this Kentucky Derby won’t feature any horses from legendary trainer Bob Baffert, who last summer had his initial two-year ban related to a failed drug test extended another 12 months by Churchill Downs, despite now being eligible to compete at the other two Triple Crown events. “I do think there has been a division within the industry,” FanDuel TV anchor Todd Schrupp said on Front Office Sports Today. “Some who believe that Bob Baffert has paid his penalty, that his transgressions are not as egregious as what has been portrayed.”

The much-anticipated changes to MLB’s highly debated new uniforms are officially coming. 

Just days after the MLB Players Association informed its membership that a series of modifications would be arriving, the league announced that it, along with official uniform supplier Nike, has indeed started the process to make a series of changes. Among them:

• Larger letters on the back of jerseys and individual pant customization, both set to be implemented for the 2025 season
• Correction of color differences between the jerseys and pants of some clubs’ gray road uniforms, with that change due to arrive as soon as the second half of this season
• A fix to the uniform discoloration that also can result from player perspiration (above), with that change also slated for as soon as the latter half of the season

The shifts follow more than two months of turmoil that had dogged the league since the much-debated introduction of Nike’s Vapor Premier jerseys in spring training, as well as pants with fewer customization options for players. Since that initial rollout, problems have included the see-through nature of the pants, a pooling of sweat on some players’ uniforms during games, names that are more difficult to read, and pants that have more easily ripped after sliding on the base paths. 

MLB said the changes were made following “conversations with players, clubs, and their equipment managers.”

“Player and club feedback is extremely important to us,” said league commissioner Rob Manfred. “Together with Nike, we listened to our players, and as a result, we are addressing their concerns. We continue to work with Nike to make adjustments with the goal of delivering a uniform that looks good and helps MLB players perform at their best.”

Fanatics, essentially acting as a subcontractor in the production of the jerseys and pants to Nike’s design specifications, was not mentioned in MLB’s announcement. 

RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., is now officially coming down, and that step could become an accelerant to the Commanders’ long-running efforts to develop a new stadium.

The National Park Service said Thursday that the 62-year-old stadium, last used in 2019, can be demolished without negative environmental effects. A study undertaken by the NPS found that the stadium is “in a state of disrepair,” but that demolition would have “no significant impact” on the “natural, cultural, and human environment.” A timetable for the actual work to be done will be set as the NPS issues a permit to D.C.

The facility sits on federally owned NPS land but is controlled by D.C. Because of that unusual structure, a bill is now in front of the U.S. Senate that would transfer the land to D.C. That measure has already cleared the House of Representatives. 

If that were to happen, a clean RFK Stadium site owned fully by D.C. would provide mayor Muriel Bowser even more momentum to pursue a stadium deal with the Commanders. The NFL team is also evaluating potential options in Maryland, where the franchise currently plays, and in Virginia, with that process stretching back many years and long before the current ownership group led by Josh Harris. But given RFK Stadium was where the franchise had its greatest success, including three Super Bowl–winning seasons, fan sentiment has leaned hard toward returning to that site. 

“We’re excited that the process is moving forward and taking us one step closer to the District putting the land at RFK to a higher and better use,” said Nina Albert, D.C. deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

Bowser also recently struck a deal with Monumental Sports & Entertainment to keep the NBA’s Wizards and NHL’s Capitals in D.C. through a long-term lease extension at Capital One Arena. 

Keeping Up

Though the active pursuit of a new Commanders stadium deal stretches back nearly a decade, going back to the franchise’s prior name and ownership, several other NFL teams have moved ahead in their own facility development efforts, including the Bills, Titans, and potentially now the Bears, Chiefs, and Browns. 

In part because of the rising urgency around the stadium situation, the Commanders recently hired Capitol Hill insider Kirtan Mehta to help deepen the team’s ties to area political leaders.