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The Kentucky Derby held each year on the first Saturday in May is the biggest event in all of horse racing. The city of Louisville, home to Churchill Downs, where the Derby is held, throws a two week long party leading up to the race, which includes a parade, a marathon, steamboat race on the Ohio River, one of the largest air shows and fireworks displays in the country, and more.
The infield at Churchill Downs is known for it’s rowdy party atmosphere during derby. While the TV cameras are usually focussed on the boxes and Millionaire’s Row, where stars and wealthy horse owners mingle, the more rowdy crowd is usually in a muddy mosh-pit of drunken mischief that is the infield.
Depending on the weather, the infield is typically left littered with the leftovers of the big party, and if it rains on derby day, it’s a slippery, muddy mess, with the grass trampled into submission to a point where it takes it most of the summer to recover from the abuse.
Mugshot courtesy of Louisville Metro Corrections
According to numerous local news outlets including WHAS-11, one man decided to get an early start on his infield partying this year via his Ford Mustang. Benjamin Bratcher, a 37 year old construction worker, who was working for a contractor that’s currently getting Churchill Downs ready for Derby festivities took his Mustang to the infield. Cars aren’t allowed in the infield, but we doubt there was much security on hand since there was no racing on this particular day. Around 2:30 PM on March 31, Bratcher was caught on security camera, and seen by Churchill Downs employees doing doughnuts in his Mustang, tearing up the grassy surface of the infield.
Louisville Metro Police arrested this moron and charged him with felony criminal mischief. Churchill Downs is claiming $1,000 worth of damage, and numerous reports quote Bratcher as saying to officials he didn’t believe it looked that bad.
We’re sure the infield will be ready in time for the Derby, and then it will probably end up looking a lot worse the day after revelers party down there. We have to wonder, where was Bratcher’s common sense? 2:30 in the afternoon, sodding the infield of a world famous horse track?
