I'm concerned about the of people who will be traveling to Louisville in May for the Oaks & Derby.

I believe that having an event like this is being totally irresponsible amid a communicable disease outbreak, when there is a LOGICAL alternative to them-which is to postpone the event to later in the summer or early fall. Churchill has indicated that next week, they will make this decision. How can the decision be anything but to postpone? There is no way that by next week, that Churchill will have enough information to indicate where Louisville will be in regards to this pandemic. Putting together a huge group, closely clustered  of 105,719 (last year’s Oaks crowd) & a group of 150,729 (last year’s Derby attendance) could be disastrous. Even with all the unknowns about this deadly virus, people will attend because all the seats were purchased last fall and PAID FOR from Churchill prior to the discovery of Covid-19 and the purchasers can not get out of them-Churchill is offering NO REFUNDS for any ticket previously purchased. What we want as Kentuckians is a repeat of the previous years of Oaks & Derby-which is a world class event where everyone is coming to Louisville VOLUNTARILY strictly to have that once in a lifetime experience, not to simply use their pre-paid tickets. Getting dressed up, attending Derby week events and parties, sipping mint juleps, smoking cigars, is what we want Derby Guests to our city to be thinking about-Not spending the day, worrying if someone next to you is going to cough.  Having this event is completely the opposite of social distancing-spreading the Corona Virus curve-instead of putting this massive crowd together. How can we be closing schools and churches, to minimize person to person contact at the same time, that Churchill is planning on putting together 250,000 people. What does Churchill Downs know that the NCAA, the NBA, Major League baseball, English Premier League, Serie A Soccer,  La Liga Soccer, Major League Soccer, and most recently the Masters, don’t know.

So far Churchill Downs has not made any plans to reschedule the Kentucky Derby . They have not made any plans on how they will prepare against the spread of the virus .

please think about the

- children

-Immune compromised 

-Elderly 

-Diabetic 

-Asthmatic

(ETC)  people who could die because of this.

On the positive side-Churchill is also not thinking outside the box-on what could be. WHAT IF the Preakness and the Belmont were held on their normal dates or even delayed, but prior to a September Derby-what if the same horse won both of their races BEFORE they come to Louisville to win the clearly the most important race of the Triple Crown. Has Churchill considered the excitement of the most prominent race of the Derby also being for the Triple Crown-can you imagine what the build would be prior to the race? No one wants to break the 145 year tradition- al that we want is delay it when the virus is on the decline.

People are scared to death of traveling. The people scheduled to come in are doing it because they stuck on the tickets, with no escape and apparently the only reason that Churchill is moving forward is simply to get it done. When you are dealing with a deadly virus, you need to err on the SIDE OF NOT GETTING OTHERS SICK. Please ask our government officials in Louisville and Frankfort as well as the officials with Churchill Downs to wait till the Covid-19 virus is under control. There is absolutely NO REASON for Churchill to force these May 1 and May 2 dates.

Thank you