With Historical Racing Machines, Red Mile Finally Has Reason to be Optimistic

LEXINGTON, KY – When Joe Costa, the President and CEO of the Red Mile, first hit town some 15 years ago to run the Central Kentucky racetrack he reported back to the owners of the racetrack and refused to sugarcoat the situation he found himself in.

“There’s nothing in the box,” he told them.

The Red Mile didn’t have a particularly robust betting handle, it didn’t have gaming, it didn’t even have thoroughbred simulcasting, making it the lone racetrack in America with that distinction. The mission back then for Costa and the racetrack’s new owners, which included Joe Thomson, George Segal and Frank Antonacci, was to find a way to keep the sport’s most historic racetrack in business. But how? How do you do that when there is nothing in the box?